Skip to main content

About Me



I am a freelance music and culture journalist based in Belfast. I am a graduate of BA French and Spanish at Queen's University where I edited The Gown Independent Student Newspaper, the longest-running student publication in the UK. I have by-lines in the Guardian, The Verge, Hot Press, The Thin Air, The Indiependent, Sunstroke magazine and numerous zines. 

I have experience writing for both digital and print media, as well as carrying out and creating interview features. Reviews, music, feminism, books, travel, pop culture, language and issues of identity are of particular interest to me, especially within an Irish context.

You can contact me via this site as I no longer use Twitter.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt - John Frusciante

Dedicated to Clara Balzary, bandmate Flea's daughter (Source: wikipedia.org) "My smile is a rifle, won't you give it a try?" The first time I listened to Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt was in the back of my family’s campervan parked in Calais after we’d just been robbed. I hadn’t listened to it – or any of Frusciante’s narcotic haze of nineties releases – since, preferring his more polished offerings of To Record Only Water for Ten Days and Shadows Collide With People , until my sister bought me a copy of Niandra Lades for my birthday. My main memories of the album were Frusciante’s wails making me jump as I tried to drift off with my headphones in. So, safe to say, I was a little apprehensive upon receiving this gift.      Although released in 1994, the first half of the album – Niandra Lades – was recorded prior to Frusciante’s departure from the Red Hot Chili Peppers during the recording of Blood Sugar Sex Magik at the allegedly haunted ...
12 comments
Read more

Film Review: Quills (2000)

(Source: google.com) “Some things belong on paper, others in life. It’s a blessed fool who can’t tell the difference.” If I’m completely honest, I initially decided to watch this film because I fancy Joaquin Phoenix loads. Aside from his looking dreamy as ever, Quills is a genuinely great film with a fantastic cast which exceeded my expectations when I first put it on. In fact, before watching Quills , it’s worth knowing a bit about its protagonist, the infamous Marquis de Sade. Born in Paris in 1740, he was an aristocratic politician, philosopher and writer, known for what Wikipedia is calling his ‘libertine sexuality’, characterised by violence and a complete lack of morality; in reality this was most likely his perverted and often misogynistic sexual fantasies (the word ‘sadism’ is derived from his name, so take from that what you will). During the time of Napoleon, he was imprisoned several times, notably in the Bastille and finally in an insane asylum at Charenton nea...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hidden Gems: We Are Family - Sister Sledge

This article originally featured on the now-defunct altmusicbox in 2015. Anthems like ‘We Are Family’ are usually synonymous with drunk uncles at family reunions and novelty songwriting as opposed to true musical hidden gems. It’s misconceptions such as this that have plagued Sister Sledge’s 1979 album in the eyes of the music-buying public and left the sisters’ 12” singles resigned to the graveyard of charity shop vinyl crates. And what an absolute shame! A perfectly crafted blend of disco, funk and R&B, commercially viable for pop radio yet with a nod to classic soul, Chic-produced We Are Family is an album that has gone on to be a central influence on the dance and even hip-hop scenes for decades after its release. Formed around the talent of four actual sisters – Debbie, Joni, Kathy and Kim Sledge – We Are Family was the group’s breakthrough record, spawning four hit singles thanks to the sprinkling of magical production courtesy of Chic masterminds and godfathers o...
Post a Comment
Read more