He's one of the biggest stars on the pop planet at the moment, but The Weeknd's number one status is a long way from his days as an anonymous figure in the internet shadows. Or is it? State's Dave Hanratty and Rory Cashin joined editor-in-chief Phil Ud...

As we write, the video for Hozier's debut single has been watched 255,331,618 times on YouTube alone. While it has undoubtedly played a major part in the singer's astonishing rise, it's also not had too bad an effect for director Brendan Canty.

As the Electric Picnic has grown over the past decade, so has Body & Soul - the area that began as a chill out space and has gone onto become, not only a festival within the festival, but its own three day event.

This week's podcast delves into the world of celluloid for the first time, with our film editor Dave Higgins joined by Dave Hanratty and Stacy Grouden to discuss how Hollywood treats sex in 2015, particularly when it involves female characters (as demo...

With the release of the NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton, the relationship that hip-hop enjoys with the world around it is back in the spotlight. From those brutally real stories of the street to the empty glorification of wealth and status,

If you listened to received wisdom you'd be convinced that the record shop was dead and gone, killed by the advent first of digital downloads and now streaming. Received wisdom isn't always right, however, and the good old fashioned music store is maki...

The Electric Picnic is fast approaching (more of which on a coming podcast) and one of the bands coming our way in early September are Manic Street Preachers. To celebrate, pod regular Jennifer Gannon and broadcaster / musician Danny Carroll joined our...

One of this country's most enduring bands, it's now 28 years since Kíla first came into existence. In the interim they have released eight studio albums, toured the world, collaborated with a host of creative individuals,

There's a lot of talk about independent music these days, but few have ploughed their own path as successfully as the Popical Island Collective. Formed five years ago with the intention of releasing a few of their own records,

Back after a fairly sizeable absence, Fight Like Apes released their third, self-titled album earlier this year - finding themselves back in the charts in the process - so we were delighted to invite Mary and Jamie to join us in the pod.