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Earth Sentinels and Robot Hearts: An Interview with Burning Man's Jason Swamy

An angel in silver knee-high boots glided towards me as I rounded a bend in the lush, tropical labyrinth leading to Suara Festival’s main stage; the breeze from her swirling, LED-tipped wings offering brief relief from the Balinese summer heat. Three glitter-faced Australian festies jumped beside me to get in on the divine draft fanning down from the angel’s rolling perch – wings whirling in perfect time to the beats pumping from somewhere within her ingenious makeshift mobile stage.
‘That’s one.’ I thought, starting a mental tally...

Death Threats in Gaza and the Perils of Building Peace Bridges in Israel with Banksy: An Interview with Fatboy Slim

“Is it my third time in Malta?” laughs Fatboy Slim, as he struggles to remember the specifics of his 2012 open-air show at Numero Uno.

“Man, I can’t really remember my second time that well! The thing is, I’ve been doing this for about 35 years now. You tend to only remember the really good ones, and the really bad ones.”

The air was thick, sweaty and unforgiving outside of Café del Mar’s green room, where Lovin Malta sat down with the 53-year-old DJ, whose real name is Norman Cook. The oppr

Poetry in the Time of AI: An Interview with David Keenan

“I was told long ago that you’d learn more on a building site than you would in school…”

As the opening lines from David Keenan’s latest single “El Paso” are belted out over the captivated crowd packing the hallowed halls of Galway’s Roisin Dubh, a line from the Coen brothers’ portrait-of-a-folk-artist Inside Llewyn Davis ran circles in mind: ‘If it was never new, and it never gets old – then it’s a folk song’.

The Bootleg Master of Manchester: An Interview with Youngr

We ducked into the air conditioned green-room tent backstage, and let out a shared sigh, momentarily basking in the contained cool that undoubtedly transported us both to the more familiar chilly climates of our respective homes, far from the balmy coasts of Bali. For Dario Darnell – stage name, Youngr – it was Manchester, England; for me – Galway, Ireland. After a beat, we exchanged an unspoken glance of shared-relief, and took a seat.

John Butler Reunites with Former Bandmate to Serenade the Island of Malta

Legendary musician John Butler crashed Nicky Bomba’s gig for a brief-yet-powerful reunion at Zion last night. Yes, that John Butler! The multi-award winning front man of The John Butler Trio, and genius behind the impeccable and stupefying instrumental track “Ocean”, teamed back up with Bomba to share some love with his Maltese fans – and they did not disappoint.

The humble Nicky Bomba informed Lovin’ Malta during our interview earlier this week that there would be very special guests joining t

Flying High like Airplanes in the Night Sky: A Day with Grammy Winning Songwriter Kinetics

News buzzed through every shop, café, and household in Cold Spring when Haldane’s ‘04 graduate and Cornell University graduate, Jeremy “Kinetics” Dussolliet, sold “Airplanes” to Atlantic Records hip-hop artist B.o.B. back in 2010. It was an early Kinetics and One Love track that many locals were familiar with – often heard booming from car stereos as kids ‘scooped the loop’, […]

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This Bar By The Valletta Coast Is A Sanctuary For Artists

Tucked down below Valletta’s Fort St. Elmo rests a hidden sanctuary for Malta’s artists. It’s not the crystal-clear cove of St Elmo’s Bay itself, but rather, the small beach bar perched on the fishermen’s wharf, Maori.

You many know it from the cat mural that faces Valletta, luring in curious onlookers from the promenade above. However, Maori’s appearance is in a constant state of flux, with its other three walls changing forms like a cuttlefish, hiding from predators.

Where once stretched a m