On his second solo project, Luke Hemmings is really getting to the heart of things. Now 27, the singer-songwriter, best known as the frontman of Sydney pop-rock band 5 Seconds of Summer, has hurdled the challenges of going solo and is finding his stride without his bandmates. Even though his lyrics sometimes wander in a stream-of-consciousness style, he’s polished them up to deliver a bigger emotional punch with fewer words. “I write in short bursts, over different periods of life,” Hemmings tells Rolling Stone AU/NZ over Zoom from his home studio in LA,  just days before unveiling ..read more

‘Behind The Rolling Stone Cover’ is sponsored by Shure, affordable, durable, and exceptional-sounding microphones you can rely on. Available to watch and listen on Rolling Stone AU/NZ, and to stream on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major podcast platforms. Family is incredibly important to Tones and I. From her ‘stage family’ that she surrounds herself with on tour to her relatives back in Melbourne, she’s very careful with who she spends time with.  “If you follow me in any capacity you’ll know how close I am with my onstage and offstage family. That’s important for me as a ..read more

Taylor Swift the celebrity is such a magnet for attention, she can distract from Taylor Swift the artist. But Swift was a songwriter before she was a star, and she’ll be a songwriter long after she graduates from that racket. It’s in her music where she’s made her mark on history — as a performer, record-crafter, guitar hero and all-around pop mastermind, with songs that can leave you breathless or with a nasty scar. She was soaring on the level of the all-time greats before she was old enough to rent a car, with the crafty guile of a Carole King and the reckless heart of a Paul Westerberg ..read more

BILLIE EILISH IS AT the bottom of a pool, held down by a large black weight attached to her shoulders. She is not, to put it mildly, enjoying herself. “I was basically waterboarding myself for six hours straight,” the 22-year-old superstar tells me later. “If I’m not suffering somehow, I don’t feel good about what I’m doing.” Eilish is wearing baggy black pants beneath a pair of shorts, a button-down shirt over a thermal long-sleeve, a striped tie, arm warmers, a variety of silver rings, and a goth-studded bracelet, plus that anchor on her shoulders. She’s been submerging herself over and ov ..read more

At the very moment Taylormania was hitting preposterous heights, threatening to turn the artist at its center into an untouchable icon, it turns out that the real Taylor Swift was spending her time between glittery three-hour concerts making some of her most fearless art. The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology is stuffed with the rawest, angriest, and most unguarded songs of Swift’s career – quite the opposite of the ingratiating, focus-grouped inoffensiveness that a skeptic might expect from an artist at her current level of visibility. On the new episode of our weekly Rolling Stone ..read more

The Prince of Darkness was first eligible to be nominated into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2006 — the same year the institution finally inducted the band he cofounded in 1968, heavy-metal pioneers Black Sabbath. But Ozzy Osbourne wasn’t actually considered for induction by himself until this year. Last month, Osbourne told Rolling Stone the anticipation of finding out whether or not he’d be inducted was driving him crazy. “It’s an honor that I’m nominated, but I’m not expecting to get in,” he said. “There’s Mariah Carey, there’s Cher, Lenny Kravitz. I’m up against so ..read more

Amy Shark has announced her new album, Sunday Sadness. The ARIA Award-winner’s third studio album will arrive on August 16th, following the release of 2021’s Cry Forever and 2018’s Love Monster, both of which topped the ARIA Albums Chart. Why that album title? “I specifically wrote this album on Sundays, constantly daydreaming about the happiest moments and the worst, remembering the best people while still getting over others. I am different on Sundays, I am not sure why, but I bet you are too,” Shark explains. “I think about my life so much on Sundays, my family, my friends and probably yo ..read more

Music, if you ever had any doubt, is all about different perspectives. (Some modern-day stans would do well to note this.) When I told Auckland musician Jim Nothing – James Sullivan to his friends – that I really liked his support set for the wonderful Wurld Series at The Wine Cellar a few weeks back, he was a little sheepish. “I was quite ill prepared,” he replied, “but Wurld Series were great as usual.” The quality of “Hourglass”, his latest single as Jim Nothing, however, is not in doubt. It’s an infectious garage-pop gem that is probably the most polished song he’s ever released – still ..read more

For South Australian electronic duo Electric Fields, representing Australia at Eurovision this year was an opportunity they couldn’t let slip by.  “We asked ourselves, ‘What story do we want to share with such a huge audience? Something impactful,'” says vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding, who’s joined by producer and keyboardist Michael Ross. “And now we’re bringing lyrics and energy we wholeheartedly believe in.” Their newest song, “One Milkali (One Blood)”, set to debut in Sweden next month, captures the Electric Fields vision perfectly. With its anthemic chorus and incorporation of Abori ..read more

The Taite Music Prize has concluded for another year, with Vera Ellen and Jujulipps claiming the top honours. Vera Ellen, winner of the main Taite Music Prize for her excellent second album Ideal Home Noise, gave a heartfelt acceptance speech thanking her Welsh ancestors, as well as the female artists who paved the way for her. Onstage, she celebrated with her album producer and bandmate Ben Lemi.  “Ideal Home Noise saved me from a difficult time in my life, as music continues to do so for me. I had many nights where I thought it was so rubbish… what if I haven’t given enough, what if y ..read more