NME’s latest stars of The Cover, YHWH Nailgun, have put together an exclusive playlist to accompany the story’s launch – check it out below.
The noise-rock quartet are on this week’s (April 14) edition of The Cover, a manifestation of NME’s commitment to supporting emerging talent across the globe on a weekly basis. Every week, a rising artist will feature on The Cover – you can read YHWH Nailgun’s profile here, written by Patrick Clarke and featuring photography by Marisa Bazan.
An exclusive playlist created by YHWH Nailgun accompanies The Cover. Titled ‘Hooks’, the synth-packed curation puts together tracks by artists like Peter Schilling, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Nate Dogg and Prefab Sprout. Listen to the full playlist on Spotify below and on Apple Music.
Landing on The Cover after the release of their debut album, ‘45 Pounds’, the group spoke about their songwriting process. “Sometimes you can find you’re trying to say something without knowing what it is that you’re trying to say. It’s not a controlled thing,” frontman Zack Borzone told NME. Drummer Sam Pickard added: “It’s like a chicken and egg. You assign certain words or symbols or whatever to the music, but you don’t know which one’s informing the other one.”
The New York band also discussed their frustration with often being portrayed as taking up a mantle from the ’70s No Wave music scene. “It feels like low-hanging fruit to me,” said Pickard. “It’s like, ‘OK, where are you from? What does your music evoke vaguely, and what do you look like?’ And then it’s like ‘Oh, the closest match is fucking DNA or something.’ It’s AI logic.”
Read YHWH Nailgun’s full Cover story here and find out who else has been on The Cover here.