Aurora Storm is a 20-year-old rising indie star from London. Her eccentric style and controversial lyrics have gained significant attention. After leaving home at 17, she struggled with drugs and homelessness but found success after being discovered busking. Her debut album Porcelain explores real teenage experiences of loneliness and imperfection. While gaining popularity quickly, Aurora insists she cares more about her music and fans than commercial success. She aims to portray life's realities rather than the "perfect picture" of mainstream pop.

1. alternate
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LYRICS
50
GIGS YOU
MUST SEE THIS
DECADE
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MONKEYS
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THE 1975
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2. CONTENTS
July 10th
#534
FEATURES
48
AURORA STORM
72
THE 1975
The woman who has landed herself
as the most controversial artist of our
generation lays herself bare.
How much fun can beiung a member
of The 1975 be? This much.
80
TWO DOOR CINEMA
CLUB VS (MAG)
85
READING & LEEDS
90
THE DRUMS
We go head to head against one of
Britain’s favourite indie bands.
The festivals of the year are just
around the corner... are you ready?!
A short, tactical guideto preening and
prouncing about.
92 HANDWRITTEN
Expert analyses behind the scribblings
of your favourite Indie artists.
101
50 GIGS IN 10 YEARS
The top 50 gigs of the decade that you
must see!
34
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REGULARS
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YOU’VE GOT MAIL!
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THE TOP 50
This months essential songs.
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Alt-J in the studio, Foster The People’s
secrets spilled, the 10 most notable
career suicides and the rest of the
music news.
48
32
ON LOCATION:
Hello Camden! We visit one of
London’s most popular urban areas
to hunt down what’s going on in the
world of Indie.
34
PG NO.
NEW TO (MAG)
Greetings Passenger, London Grammar and Imagine Dragons. Make
yourself at ome.
PG NO.
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REVIEW
50
THE 1975 @ BRIXTON
January can be a month of false
impressions in pop, when a band can
look bigger than it really is by doing
something major in a music wasteland. The 1975’s three nights in this
5,000-capacity venue are London’s
only gigs of note this week but the
Manchester quartet has been making
a big noise before now. Their debut
album went to number one in the
much busier month of September
2012.
42
ACCESS ALL AREAS
The best seat in the house behind the
scenes of Arctic Monkey’s hit new
album - AM.
78
RECORD COLLEC
TIONS
Indie’s finest, Chris Martin, takes us
back to his musical beginnings.
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161 QUIZ
Your regular dose of brain food. Win
a guitar and amp worth £1,200.
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LAST REQUESTS
Final thoughts from Kodaline.

4. EXCLUSIVE
48
S
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5. S
W
hat with her eccentric, controversial yet
iconic style - and music and match 20-year-old Aurora Storm is currently
causing a sensation in the UK, where
her vivid indie-edge debut single ‘Smother’ has charted in the Top 10. Her sassy, bad-girl act echoes that of
childhood idols Janis Joplin and Madonna. “I look to
Madonna for her philosophy about music and fashion,”
she admits. “If I’m going to get compared to any music
artist, I sure as fuck want it to be her.”
Raised in the heart of London, Aurora attended the
£17,000-a-year Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marylebone, where she studied music and performing arts
alongside Rita Ora and Tom Fletcher. ‘I didn’t hang out
with all the popular girls,” she says, claiming to have
kept her head down and focused on her art and theatre
studies. To the humiliation of her parents – extremely
successful lawyers - she ended up moving downtown at
just 17 years old following a serious argument she had
with her family. Aurora did everything she could to get
by – working in a small café at minimal wage and occasionally partaking in nude modeling and busking on the
streets of London to songs that she had written in her
spare time, just so she could have a roof over her head
and place food on her plate every night. “I was doing
drugs, I was really out of control,” she says. “But what
made me different was that I was making music, too. I
wasn’t just doing drugs.”
Her antics caught the eye of musical-director Caius
Pawson, (Founder of The XX, Sampha) who found her
aurora storm
busking at Camden Lock, before
bringing her to the attention of
Young Turks Records. Aurora’s
debut album Porcelain is released in
the UK this month, and she plans to
take just herself, her guitar and her
music worldwide. But Aurora insists
that it’s not all about the marketing
and publicity.
“I could end up in America selling
thousands of records or I could
go back to how things were before
when no one really knew my name
and few people purchased my
music, and it wouldn’t matter to me.
All that matters is the music. I don’t
give a shit about how many records
are sold – as long as I am making
music for the people I love, then I’m
happy.”
There’s no denying the fact that
Aurora is all that everyone is talking
about right now – her seemingly
overnight success is what has got
her to where she is now. When
asked if this is the “most insane
year” of her life so far, the singer-song writer says, “Everything
is so chaotic and crazy right now
and it’s so much all at once, but I’m
living for it. I’m just having the best
time ever and everything’s
falling into place like it’s supposed
to. I don’t really care if people hate
me. I think anyone wanting to
pursue a music career would have
given anything to be me at that very
moment where I blew up, because I
was being one hundred percent true
to myself… and not many people
can say that.”
But it’s not all hate for Aurora. This
fact is a kind of icing on the cake
for some, who have greeted Aurora not just as the latest, new, indie
sensation to appear freshly baked
off the assembly line, but as a kind
of Trojan horse come to deliver
us from the saccharine smiles and
full-frontal sexual provocation
clogging the charts. “The charts are
49

6. EXCLUSIVE
constantly filled up with pop songs
with no meaning, no real passion…
just a different combination of the
26 letters in our alphabet accompanied by a stupid tune. Who wants
to listen to that?! That’s what I want
to change.” Aurora’s sharp narrative
observations – on both the single,
and her critically acclaimed follow-up album, Porcelain – have led
to her being labeled the voice of her
generation.
When we meet, Aurora can barely
sit upright. “I came down with a
kidney infection just as I was about
to get on a plane here,” she says.
“They took me into hospital and
put me on a drip and now I’m on
heavy-duty antibiotics.” With her
gothically pale skin offset by dark,
red lips, black-rimmed wide-set
eyes and her bold, statement full
fringe, it’s not hard to see why she
attracts the attention that she does
– even when she’s ill she manages to
look flawless. She looks much older
than she is, a perception reinforced
sound that shakes you to the core.
That is the power of the whistle
register; the ability to control that
part of the human voice is quite
rare (think Mariah Carey) and even
when ill, Aurora is able to hit way
beyond the whistle register. In performance, Aurora has a goofy theatricality: one minute she is indulging
in closed-eyed singing whilst si
ply sat with her guitar, shaking her
hair and flicking her hands out;
the next, she’s all broad smiles and
wisecracks, jokily mocking her
audience. Aurora was born with the
ability to be a performer and that’s
quite hard to find these days.
‘‘Songwriting is so weird because
you are writing down intimate
things and then you go into a studio with someone you have never
met,” she says. “For me, the idea
of an album touched by anyone
else… that would cut me in half. I
wouldn’t want to make albums with
song writers. I don’t like people
who call themselves singer/song-
“I don’t intend on
selling dreams
to young people.”
by the deep, commanding timbre of
her sonorous voice.
On stage the previous night at
Brixton Academy, Aurora had betrayed no sign of her illness, or that
she had only 20 live performances
under her belt. Aurora performed a
mix of emotional ballads and when
she reached the dramatic climax
of the song, she vaults to the top of
her range and produces a piercing
8
50
writer when they don’t write all
of it themselves. I do everything
myself.” When asked about sharing
her thoughts and problems with
the world through songwriting,
Aurora claims, “It was just music
that was written when I was getting
wrecked just for fun. It was almost
secondary to getting wrecked – the
fact that people have embraced it
is actually really humbling. It’s also
kind of conflicting and has sent me
a bit mental
but anybody
that knows me
will know that
it doesn’t take
much to send
me mental.
When I passed
it through to
my team, it
was a strange
situation where
something just
clicked. My
team was very
good at being
perceptive
and figuring
out what I do,
which is quite a
raw, impulsive
thing. “
Over the past
year and a half,
from 2011, Aurora and her team
came up with the 10 songs for her
debut album, but Aurora says it
never crossed her mind that one
might become a worldwide hit. She
insisted her first songs be put out on
free streaming service SoundCloud
without any videos or photographs
to promote them. “I put my music
out with no kind of commercial
expectation, and found out I was
a ‘star’. I didn’t see my music as
number-one Billboard chart selling
music,” she says. “I tried to market
my music the way my favourite
indie producers did. I care more
about giving back to my fans and
the people that I love than selling
my music worldwide – don’t get me
wrong, it’s an absolute honour to
be doing what I’m doing but I don’t
want to become a marketing product like most pop artists these days.
I’m much deeper than that.”
While other mainstream pop acts
such as Katy Perry, One Direction and Britney Spears turn to
the same small pool of producers
www.alternatemag.com

7. aurora storm
in London, Stockholm and LA
who deal in radio-friendly generic
dance styles, more-experimental
acts such as Kanye West or Lady
Gaga elect complicated, flamboyant
and ostentatious compositions. By
contrast, Aurora’s sound is simple
yet cinematic, spinning tales of real
teenage realities – penniless but
happy nights out full of longing and
loneliness – that reject clichés of
mindless fun and decadence.
“I don’t intend on selling dreams to
young people. We’re now brought
up believing that you have to live
and behave in a certain way to
get the best out of life – but that’s
completely wrong. Look at Disney
for example; as a child I thought I
was going to be a princess, just like
most little girls do… but that’s not
going to happen. Being a teenager
and growing up in this generation
isn’t what people expect. Y’know,
constant partying, your first kiss,
being prom queen, falling in love…
it’s not what it seems. It’s all bullshit.
Growing up is one of the most
difficult periods of time
that you can experience
– yes, it can be great,
but just like everything
there’s a downfall and
people need to be more
aware of that. That’s
why I write about my
experiences. I’ve gone
from rock bottom right
to the top; I want my
music to reflect on this
– not everyone is perfect
and I want my music
to help people through
the reality of life… not
this perfect picture that
generic music seems to
constantly portray.”
When asked about what
motivates Aurora to
create music, she states
“Nothing really, it’s just
an innate need - I’ve
never known how to do
anything else. The way
my music is so based
around music almost
51

8. EXCLUSIVE
drives me crazy. I would rather get
away from it than me inspired to
create it because I can’t ever imagine
doing something else.”
When asked about what motivates
Aurora to create music, she states
“Nothing really, it’s just an innate
need, I’ve never known how to do
anything else. The way my music
is so based around music almost
drives me crazy. I would rather get
away from
it than me
inspired to
create it because I can’t
ever imagine
doing something else.”
I write about my experiences. I’ve
gone from rock bottom right to the
top; I want my music to reflect on
this – not everyone is perfect and
I want my music to help people
through the reality of life… not this
perfect picture that generic music
seems to constantly portray.”
“I feel like there’s a genuine hole in
me. The little death, almost. I need
stimulation. I used to need physical
stimulation
constantly,
whether that
is from taking drugs,
listening to
the sound
of my own
voice or
flirting with
guys and
girls. I’m not
bisexual, but
that’ moment when
you realise
someone
likes you –
it’s the best
feeling in the
world. If you
could bottle
it… [She
drifts off for
a moment.
And then
she asks that
question] ‘Do you like me?”
“The way my
brain is so
based around
“The idea of
hell for me
would be if I
wasn’t making music. I
don’t know
any other
way of expressing myself; therefore
I don’t really
know another way
of indulging
myself. And
a life without
indulgence
and nuance
would be catastrophic. I genuinely
don’t know what I would do. Music
for me kind of commands me how
to feel, whether its excitement or
emotion or anything. I’m totally, totally defined by music. I would just
try to get any job that was associated with music”, she says laughing.
music
almost
drives me
crazy.”
“It’s all bullshit. Growing up is one
of the most difficult periods of time
that you can experience – yes, it can
be great, but just like everything
there’s a downfall and people need
to be more aware of that. That’s why
52
Aurora possesses a maturity that
is, for now, inoculating her from
the madness growing around her.
“What I am doing now, I learnt so
much that I couldn’t learn at any
university at any age,” she says.
“Every time I get on stage I learn
something new. I’m evolving all the
time. My next record could sound
completely different.”
Aurora Storm gives her
opinion on some of the most
well-known Indie artists of
the generation:
The 1975:
“The 1975 are one of my favourite
bands!!! I especially love their song
‘The City’, it’s so catchy and always
stuck in my brain. The impact they
have made in such a short time really
reflects well on the type of band they
are, and I encourage everyone to buy
their debut album otherwise you’ll regret it!”
Ed Sheeran:
“Ed is actually one of my close friends,
he’s an absolutely amazing artist and
we actually plan on working together
in the future! But shhhhhh... you didn’t
hear it from me!”
London Grammar:
“I’ve heard some of their stuff - they’re
great, but a little bit overrated. Maybe
that’s just me but I personally think
that they haven’t quite produced the
life-affirming set they may have bee
capable of... But don’t get me wrong, I
think that Hannah [lead singer] has an
absolutely beautiful voice. They have
the potential to be a chart-topping,
tear-inducing live act – but when I saw
them live at Brixton, it was not their
time or place.”
Catch Aurora Storm
on BBC Radio 1’s Live
Lounge on July 16th!
Aurora’s album, Porcelaine, is out
November 26th.
www.alternatemag.com

9. aurora storm
53

10. scribble gathering
handwritten
LYRICS
Handwriting expert Vanessa Wanner’s mission from (MAG NAME) was simple:
pore over a selection of original indie lyrics and spill the beans on the people who
wrote them... get her take on the scrawlings of Aurora Storm, Paloma Faith, Matty
from The 1975, Kasabian, Florence & The Machine, Ed Sheeran and Oasis.
Aurora S T O R M
“LOVE”
She can’t erase him [them] from her mind,
the memories and the heart break. She
replays the happiest moments and the
moment he ended all he had with her for
another person. It’s constantly on her mind,
although she’s tried her absolute hardest to
forget everything. She can’t stand knowing
that he said words he used to say to her to
another girl. Also, porcelain is very detailed, as in China dolls and antiques; and
are often connoted as breaking very easily.
She pictures them having intercourse, and
everything’s very detailed. He and his new
lover knew of everything she had with him,
and they both knew that it would break
her heart (‘bleeding inside’) as in her heart
hurts. These lyrics really capture the heart-
Matthew Healy T H E 1 9 7 5
“HEART OUT”
This quote could either be directed at Matty from the girl, or from Matty to
the girl. “Rocks” is slang for a form of cocaine. “Brown” is slang for heroin.
Matty or the girl is addicted to cocaine, heroin and sleeping around, this
behaviour is a reflection on the persons mental health.
92
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11. alternate
CREATING A
STORM
WHAT’S INSIDE AURORA’S HEAD
EXCLUSIVE SUSCRIBER-ONLY ISSUE