Northwest Connection: Neotribe Festival Special – Live from Sunbird Records, Darwen

Join us for a deep dive into the UK underground music scene with this exclusive episode recorded live at Neotribe Festival 2025. Hosted at the legendary Sunbird Records in Darwen, Lancashire, this special edition of Northwest Connection podcast features backstage interviews with every band on the lineup—capturing raw energy, creative rituals, and sonic storytelling across genres like metal, punk, glitch, ambient, and experimental rock.

🎧 Discover emerging UK artists, festival culture, and behind-the-scenes insights🎤 Hosted by Northwest Connection, your gateway to Northern music and podcasting culture📍 Featuring Sunbird Records, Neotribe Festival, and the Darwen music community

Perfect for fans of independent music, festival coverage, and artist interviews. Hit play and step into the tribe.

This episode, we dive headfirst into the chaos with Bolton’s own Papashangos—a punk band that’s equal parts theatrical mayhem and raw sonic power. From drunken clown origins to gear-smashing gigs, the band unpacks their wild journey through the UK punk scene. We talk DIY ethos, cult followings, and what it’s really like to tear up the stage at Rebellion Festival.

Expect noise. Expect nonsense. Expect chaos.

We lost Will very early in the recording, chaos follows these lot everywhere!

In this episode of Northwest Connection we drift into the sonic depths of Overhead the Albatross. With their latest album I Leave You This, the Dublin-based post-rock collective crafts a requiem for memory—layered in strings, static, and seismic emotion.

We catch them between echoes: backstage rituals, creative fractures, and the quiet urgency of leaving something behind. It’s a conversation stitched with ghost notes and glitch light, where every sound feels like a farewell and a beginning.

This isn’t just music—it’s cartography for the heartbroken, a map of what was felt.

Rozemary crawled out of the Wirral with nothing but noise, nerve, and a name that sticks like blood on denim. In this episode, they tear through their origin story—no fairy tales, just busted amps, basement gigs, and the bands that lit the fuse. It’s a loud love letter to the Wirral’s underground scene: scrappy, strange, and finally waking up. If you’re into feedback, fury, and the kind of honesty that doesn’t flinch, this one hits hard.

🔥 Northwest Connection presents an intimate interview with Still—an artist who reshapes black metal into ritual, memory, and myth.

In this emotionally charged episode, Still speaks from the quiet edges of black metal, where silence isn’t emptiness—it’s sacred. Beneath the distortion and fury lies a deeper truth: the cold we choose, the hurt that holds us together, and the fire that burns beneath the noise.

We explore the tension between restraint and rage, the beauty of what’s left unsaid, and the rituals that shape identity in underground music. This isn’t just an interview—it’s a cinematic meditation on grief, endurance, and the sacred violence of sound.

Whether you’re drawn to atmospheric black metal, post-metal introspection, or the raw poetry of artist storytelling, this episode delivers a visceral experience.

Indifferent Engine are back—and they brought Speculative Fiction, a blistering new album that fuses dystopian noise with razor-sharp intent. In this episode of Northwest Connection, we crack open the gears behind the sound: the tension, the torque, and the total refusal to conform. From lyrical breakdowns to studio chaos, it’s a full-throttle dive into the band’s most volatile release yet.

This isn’t speculation. It’s ignition.

Plug in. Tune out. Let the Engine run wild.

Step into the sonic fog with post-rock powerhouse The Grey as they unravel the stories, sounds, and shadows behind their latest album Kodok. From towering walls of distortion to moments of haunting stillness, The Grey takes us on a journey through the creative storms that shaped their most atmospheric work to date. In this episode, we explore the alchemy of their songwriting, the landscapes that inspire them, and what lies beyond the edge of the Grey.

Prepare for impact.
In this episode, we sit down with Hundred Year Old Man, the Leeds-based post-metal juggernaut known for their towering walls of sound, slow-burning intensity, and apocalyptic atmosphere. We explore the creative forces behind their latest material, the emotional depths that shape their sound, and how they build vast, immersive sonic landscapes that crush and captivate in equal measure.

We also talk about their standout performances at ArcTanGent Festival, where their live show proved why they’re one of the UK’s most compelling heavy acts — atmospheric, relentless, and unforgettable.

This is more than metal — it’s a descent into the deep, the bleak, and the beautifully brutal.

Whether you're a longtime fan or new to the band, this is an essential listen for anyone drawn to the heavier end of the spectrum.