Few could claim to have such a wide-reaching influence upon underground music and culture in the last 30 years as David Pajo. The influence of Spiderland , the wiry, disconcerting odyssey that he and his band Slint made when they were barely adults can be seen everywhere: from the anxious jitters of early London Windmill Scene bands, to North American post-hardcore, to the noise rock scenes in Asia and South America. The pleasure was all Ria Serena 's when she got to sit down with Pajo...

Known predominantly for his 1969 record, Ode to Quetzalcoatl , David Bixby's music is that of a true original: deeply intimate, spiritually powerful psychedelic folk embedded with a powerful sense of both hope and crushing loneliness. The Mic's own Ria Serena sat down with Bixby to discuss religion, his experiences of having been shipwrecked whilst working as a sailor, and the absolute power of music to carry one through the void of depression. I had always entertained the idea of...

Ria Serena Many moons ago, I had the good fortune to speak to lo-fi extraordinaire (and now Facebook friend!) Martin Newell , best known as the talented maverick behind Cleaners from Venus .   Newell’s discography reads like a love letter to the eccentricities hidden within life’s mundanities. Full of poetic anecdotes, jangling melodies, and his signature wry charm, his music captures the true essence of English whimsy and wistful nostalgia.   I first discovered Newell’s music via the...