Best of 2014 The DIY List 2014: World of Warpaint

Warpaint feature at #71 in The DIY List 2014, our round-up of the artists who defined the past year through albums, unforgettable shows and the unexpected. This interview is originally from the March 2014 issue of DIY.

Warpaint have just narrowly escaped a hailstorm and are in slightly chaotic moods as a result. “Where are we?” asks the band’s drummer Stella Mozgawa, peering around the room looking slightly dazed. “North of Shoreditch, right? So Northditch.” Emily Kokal is looking for the chai tea, and meanwhile Jenny Lee Lindberg is busy trying to beat Theresa Wayman to the seat nearest the heater.

Still, the band quickly go quiet when they hear that people were singing new material at the top of their lungs at the Warpaint’s Brixton Academy show late last year – despite one song in particular having been out just a few days. “Really?!” Emily exclaims. Stella throws out a silencing arm across the sofa. “Did you hear that? They knew ‘Love Is To Die’, right to the back!”

The response might come as a surprise to Warpaint, but everyone else probably saw it coming. Virtually the moment ‘Love Is To Die’ surfaced, Twitter timelines and Facebook newsfeeds everywhere turned into walls of scrolling misty artwork the hue of oxidized copper, accompanied by endless excitable comments. The atmosphere in Brixton on the night the band made their return was akin to Murray’s Mount at an alternative rock Wimbledon. Warpaint are a band that seem to unite people, and almost everyone is universally losing it over the prospect of their second album.