Mick Birchall Reviews | Interviews, Gig Reports & Album Reviews

In the run-up to the new single “Lost In the Highlights”, and before they embark on their autumn UK Tour, I sat down with Ross, guitarist for the Canadian southern rock stars The Commoners . In this interview, we talk about writing new music and nerd out about guitars. This was such a fun chat. Read on!   Mick: You’re coming back to the UK for a decent, lengthy tour, and you seem to be making yourselves quite at home. Is there something special about UK audiences that you really enjoy performing for? Ross: I think they get the rock music that we do, whatever you consider us, southern rock or roots rock. It’s in that world where it’s not the super traditional hard rock bands you see out there. The special thing we do is bring the soul to the rock, with the backing vocals and the grooves we put down, but obviously it’s still rock and roll. I think UK audiences resonate with that more. We’re bringing this cool soul element, and because it originally came from the UK anyway, the audi...

Ahead of their new album,  Identity , releasing on the 16th October 2026. I sat down with the vocalist of Elysion , Christianna Hatzimihali , to discuss the band’s 20th anniversary, the new album, making music videos, the Greek metal world and more.  Mick: First things first, it’s 20 years of Elysion this year. How does it feel that the band has existed that long and you managed to maintain a career in this industry? Christianna: Well, as you said, this year marks our 20th anniversary of the band’s existence. To me, it’s kind of weird because it feels like it was yesterday when I joined the band. It goes to show that time flies, and it just feels so weird for everyone. On one hand, it feels like it was yesterday, and then on the other hand, so much has gone by, and we’ve been through so much, and it was such a journey. So, it’s a mixed feeling of both growth and moving on and stepping up and changing levels, and at the same time, just feeling like we’re still the same, just as...

Mick: I was literally just listening to the new album, Crystal Eyes, before I got the call. I've really been enjoying it so far. What differences do you feel between this album and your previous work, in terms of what you’ve taken into writing/recording this record? Ann: I mean, it’s been a very short time between these two albums, Sharp Objects and Crystal Eyes . So it's connected in some way because if you're looking back, it was a bigger gap between Killer Machine and Sharp Objects . So I think we're still in a mood like writing new songs. I mean, I don't know how you listeners feel, but for me, it's like we are in a new mode, like more of a Dead Boy s , The Dictators , Blondie kind of mode. So I think it's like the Sharp Objects and Crystal Eyes is a bit connected to each other, the two albums, because we wrote it in like two years, the two albums.   Mick: You’ve called this your most powerful album yet; could you elaborate? Ann: I mean, it would be w...

Screenshot Taken from  Hypnosaur live @ SoundArt Festival, 14.03.2025, Quantic, Bucharest After I published my editorial about the Polish stoner-rock band, Hypnosaur , and off the back of the release of their second album, Afterlife , I got the opportunity to sit down and chat with the full band: Bartosz Kulczycki (vocals, keyboards), Michał Siedlecki (guitar, backing vocals), Marcin “Farf” Jastrzębski (bass), and Marcin Szóstakowski (drums). In this interview, we spoke about the production of the new album, their songwriting process, and the struggles of being an independent band in 2026. This is a great look into the band and their thoughts. Also, being able to talk to the full band was interesting. This interview serves as a complementary piece to my original blog about them. Mick: Hi, thanks for joining me today. How are you guys doing? Farf: Yeah, we're great, and all of us are here actually, which wasn't the plan in the first place. So, you've got the whole band, whi...

Escape The Hive is an exciting band exploding out of the independent scene and getting ready to take over with their new album coming out in 2026, now signed with Deko Entertainment/Warner Brothers Music. I had the opportunity to sit with band members, Michael Beck (Lead Vocals) and Paul Williams (Bass & Backing Vocals), to discuss the new record, their writing, their live shows and their influences. This is a fun interview with two great guys. It’s gotten me excited for the new album. Mick: Thank you for taking the time to speak to me. So, you have a new album coming out next month. I took a listen to the new single “Around The Sun”, and I really quite enjoyed it. I guess my first question is, what were the lessons you took from the first record into this one? Michael: Paul, you want to take that one? Paul: Well, the first record and the second record are so different, just timeline-wise. The first record was just Michael and me writing the songs. There were just a bunch of riffs,...