Interviews

UK alt-pop stalwarts Squeeze have never quite followed the rules of disengagement, so when they unearthed a 52-year-old demo tape from 1974 featuring a nightclub-oriented song cycle penned by the band’s then-teenage songwriting duo — Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook — they actually found something worth salvaging. The 13 songs retrieved from the vaults were all given new life, and they now comprise the band’s just-released 16th studio album Trixies. AP editor Mike Mettler reviews one of the color variants, plus he talks with guitarist/vocalist Glenn Tilbrook about why he’s always loved vinyl, the art of sequencing, and how two of Squeeze’s most classic songs came together. . .

For a British band with such a potentially foreboding name as The Darkness, their music is anything but grim. Instead, they choose to celebrate what we call a “tongue in chic” (spelling intended) wink/nudge approach to rock conventionalism by meeting all of it head on with layered riffs, clever arrangements, and operatic vocals galore — and their latest smokin’ hot LP, Dreams on Toast, is the living analog proof. Read AP editor Mike Mettler’s interview with Darkness guitarist/producer Dan Hawkins to see what he doesn’t want to hear on test pressings, why “flow” is critical to vinyl sequencing, and what albums he and his older brother, Darkness lead singer Justin Hawkins, bought and shared together when they were growing up. . .

To say Live Aid altered the course of many an artist’s career exactly 40 years ago today on July 13, 1985, would be an understatement of epic proportions. One such artist got to do so with one single solitary solo performance — keyboardist/vocalist Howard Jones. Forty years on, Jones continues to create new and vital work, in addition to touring his long-loved hits. To cover all of the then and now bases, Jones and AP editor Mike Mettler got on the horn together across the Pond to discuss his compositional thought processes behind what appears on the vinyl version of his new limited-edition 180g LP Piano Composed Ivory, his most vivid recollections of performing at Live Aid, and which two British uber-superstars got a truly private performance backstage of a song Jones didn’t get to perform for the gathered Live Aid masses. . .

We lost a true hero the other day. Mike Peters, frontman of the iconoclast Welsh alt-rockers The Alarm, passed away at age 66 on April 29, 2025, in Dyserth, Wales, following a three-decades-long battle with cancer. In a previously unpublished interview conducted in 2024, AP editor Mike Mettler and Peters discuss his favorite record shops he went to while growing up in Wales, the importance of understanding sleeve notes, and why early Alarm records were quieter on vinyl than they should have been. . .

Singer, songwriter, and folk-centric multi-instrumentalist Jesse Colin Young passed away at age 83 at his home in Aiken, South Carolina, on March 16, 2025. Young’s artistic legacy remains quite vibrant and most especially fruitful on vinyl, whether it be from The Youngbloods era on Sundazed’s 2010 reissue of 1967’s Earth Music and Impex’s 2023 180g LP reissue of 1969’s Elephant Mountain, or Young’s 2019 2LP solo album Dreamers. In this mega-expanded interview, Young and AP editor Mike Mettler discuss how The Youngbloods’ perennial favorite “Get Together” beat the odds to become an indelible hit, why he felt “Darkness, Darkness” is among his best-loved — and most covered — songs, and why his 2019 studio album Dreamers absolutely had to appear on 2LPs, and not just one. . .

For many of the interesting, innovative, and forward-thinking, progressive-leaning recordings of the past half-century-plus that we live for and love on vinyl, Tony Levin has been both their heartbeat and anchor. Whether it’s with King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, Paula Cole, ABWH, Stick Men, or scores of other artists’ albums that number well into the 500s, Levin’s signature bass tones immediately let you know, “Now, this is going to be a rewarding listening experience.” In a recent Zoom interview with AP editor Mike Mettler, Levin discusses the ongoing wonderment that comes with flipping over LP sides, what his first vinyl recording session was in the 1950s, and the “complicated” decision behind when to sing, or when not to sing. . .

The first word that comes to mind whenever we think of the guitar playing of Andy Summers is texture. The once and forever Police guitarist was — and still is, really — a master of tone and feel. He inherently knew how to create a sonic table setting to drape around whatever cerebral subject matter the chief Police lyricist, bassist/vocalist Sting, came up with while also leaving room for his vocals and low-end additions to both breathe and flourish — not to mention how Summers was able to weave in and out of Stewart Copeland’s truly original drumming and percussion embellishments. During a recent Zoom interview with AP editor Mike Mettler, Summers discusses his favorite Police moments on vinyl, his preferred record store haunts in England while he was growing up, and if his 1980s collaborations with King Crimson’s Robert Fripp might soon see vinyl reissues and/or upgrades. . .