Michael Astley-Brown

@mikevennart won't remember this, but 16 years ago, I told him how much his band Oceansize meant to me. I might have rambled about them being the perfect blend of Mogwai, Soundgarden and every other artist I adored. We took this goofy picture. Then they split up a few months later. I don't think a band ending has ever affected me quite so much.

When I got into this guitar journalism lark, I vowed to one day write a feature detailing their influence – because it goes deeper than anyone in that group realises. It's taken the best part of a year to track down all the folks I wanted to speak to, and I'm more proud of this @guitarworldmagazine piece than anything else I've written. This band matters. Niche music matters. Progressive, sky-scraping, otherworldly, weird-ass music matters. It changes lives. It helped me through every difficult moment in my own existence, and inspired me to make weird-ass music with three guitarists.

Big thanks to @mishaperiphery, @nollyggd and @yvetteyoung for giving up their time to talk to me about how singularly brilliant this band is. Thank you to Mike for sharing these stories. And thank you to Oceansize for championing big, high-concept songs that don't always make sense when you first hear them, but go on to unfurl and embed themselves in your brain over weeks, months, years, decades. We need more music like that in this world

#oceansize #guitarworld #progrock #progressiverock #musicjournalism