Max Shand

Max Shand is business bro moonlighting as an arts writer. He loves creativity wherever it comes from, whether that be in music, books, or business.
Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones on the Debut Album That Was Decades in the Making

Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones on the Debut Album That Was Decades in the Making

The founder of Mute Records and his brilliant production collaborator have crafted countless masterpieces together over the years, but their long-in-the-works Sunroof project didn’t get around to releasing their debut album until 2021. This is their story.

Popular Culture Is Eating Its History and OMD Are Not Complaining

Popular Culture Is Eating Its History and OMD Are Not Complaining

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark are the most important and influential group of the late 1970s/early 1980s birth of electropop. OMD's classic, clever, arty synthpop single "Enola Gay" is 40 years old, and Andy McCluskey takes us through their history.

Synthpop King Vince Clarke on Erasure’s 18th Studio Album, ‘The Neon’

Synthpop King Vince Clarke on Erasure’s 18th Studio Album, ‘The Neon’

PopMatters recently dialed in with synthpop maestro Vince Clarke to discuss the 35-year history of Erasure and their most recent album, The Neon.

Electropop’s Cut Copy Discuss New Album ‘Freeze, Melt’ As They Continue to Evolve

Electropop’s Cut Copy Discuss New Album ‘Freeze, Melt’ As They Continue to Evolve

In advance of their sixth studio album, we spoke with Cut Copy's Dan Whitford about Freeze, Melt, and the road the electropop group took to get to where they are.

DMA’S Discuss Their Dancier New Album ‘The Glow’

DMA’S Discuss Their Dancier New Album ‘The Glow’

DMA'S lead-singer, Tommy O'Dell, discusses the band's new album The Glow, and talks about the dancier direction in their latest music.

40 Years of Finely Tuned Nonsense: An Interview with Severed Heads

40 Years of Finely Tuned Nonsense: An Interview with Severed Heads

At Severed Heads' third-last show in New York, after decades of playing electronic, art-pop, Tom Ellard swung a noose around his band's head and, with an imitable grin, slowly pulled tighter. After 40 years, Severed Heads is done, and Ellard muses on his long career.

Dual Identities and the Iranian Diaspora: Sepehr on ‘Shaytoon’

Dual Identities and the Iranian Diaspora: Sepehr on ‘Shaytoon’

Electronic producer Sepehr discusses his debut album, life in the Iranian diaspora, and illegal music stores in modern Iran.

Music As Control: Phase Fatale on ‘Scanning Backwards’

Music As Control: Phase Fatale on ‘Scanning Backwards’

Berlin-based techno producer, Phase Fatale discusses how music can operate as a means of control and how technology has entered the most intimate of human affairs.

Boy Harsher Are ​Stealing Back the Club

Boy Harsher Are ​Stealing Back the Club

Boy Harsher are challenging the divide between band and club music. They're revisiting the early 1980s and not to dwell in nostalgia, but to pick up where bands like Cabaret Voltaire left off.

Kris Baha and the EBM Revival

Kris Baha and the EBM Revival

As a DJ and an artist, Kris Baha picks up on the most ideologically charged 1980s electronic dance music and introduces it to a new and growingly voracious audience.

OMD at 40: Making Sense of a Synthpop Legacy

OMD at 40: Making Sense of a Synthpop Legacy

OMD's first three albums were crucial in the development of ambitious, intellectual, art-pop. They also led to the emergence of a whole generation of electronic pop groups that have continually influenced artists up to this day.