Rockaway Beach

@ Butlin’s, Bognor Regis - Day One

Chewing out a rhythm on my bubble gum, the sun is out but it’s minus one. We’re kicking off the new year in style with a trip to sunny Bognor Regis for Rockaway Beach. Traditionally the first festival of the year, Muso’s Guide has been covering this fest since 2015 .

Captain Stavros is a veteran at this point but it’s the first time for me. It’s off season for Butlin’s holiday camp in January, so Rockaway Beach takes over the whole place for three days. A word of advice for anyone coming from abroad ; fly into Gatwick, not Heathrow, it’ll cut about two hours off your journey!

Logistics aside, we arrive on a clear night with an expected meteor shower. Unfortunately, the glaring light of the full moon makes it difficult to make out even the brightest constellations. We get a comfy room in the Wave Hotel and head down to Centre Stage, where most of the gigs are taking place. Despite the late hour, there’s a queue in Burger King and at the Chinese too.

Voka Gentle are like an hip Brady Bunch who spent their, very recent, youth listening to early Alt J. The two women who occupy the stage to the left and right are either sisters or have spent so much time together that they look and act alike. The other two band members; perhaps brothers, uncles, or cousins, take centre stage but the talent is in the two girls. Their harmonies and multi-instrumental talents are raw and only beginning to take shape but they have something. It’s not clear yet what it is, but they’ve got something. All four members are comfortable with both digital and analogue equipment and often use both simultaneously.

It’s a noticeably older crowd and many of the attendees will have children this age, and are very encouraging, which is no more than the band deserve. Diamonds in the rough but diamonds nonetheless.

After a late arrival and a full day of travel from Dublin, we retire to the comfy surroundings of the hotel room to talk nonsense and decompress, with much anticipation for tomorrow’s activities.

Josaleigh Pollett Is Haunted By Poltergeist

Salt Lake City’s Josaleigh Pollett returns with ‘Radio Player’, an electronics-infused and poltergeist-inspired new single. Here, Josaleigh is reunited with long-time collaborator Jordan Watko (Crowd Shy) for the first time since Jordan’s relocation to Japan, making this their first recorded output since 2023’s highly acclaimed ‘In the Garden, By the Weeds’, which NPR Music’s Bob Boilen featured on All Songs Considered.

Despite the distance between them, the pair opted to make their first cross-continent collaboration more ambitious and exploratory than what had come before. Merging analogue atmospherics, indie rock drive, and pop melodies, ‘Radio Player’ feels haunting, claustrophobic, and cathartic.

Speaking on their return, Josaleigh comments “Radio Player is a song about memory and fear, loosely based on seeing the movie Poltergeist at too young an age. It is a journey through the hallways of childhood that we leave a light on within. A pink light flickers on and beckons the listener through, releasing them changed and covered in ectoplasm five minutes later”.

Listen to 'Radio Player' here