ILMC 2024: London Calling artists on the highs and lows of playing live

nme.com:

NME about the highs and lows of playing live in the current climate, and shared advice for rising acts about taking to the stage.The event, showcasing unsigned music across the capital, is set to return for its second year tomorrow (Wednesday, February 28) as a core element of the ILMC.

With over 1,000 agents, promoters and live music professionals in town, ILMC offers a platform for artists to perform in front of a potentially career-changing crowd.Across five intimate venues across Soho – The 100 Club, 21Soho, The Lower Third, Phoenix Arts Club and The Spice of Life – London Calling boasts a stacked line-up of August Charles, b1no*, Babymorocco, Backroad Gee, Emilia Tarrant, Forgetting The Future, freekind, Gia Ford, Hyphen, Lala Hayden, Luna Morgenstern, LYVIA, MAVICA, Noah and the Loners, Nxdia, The New Eves and YIIGAA.With the ILMC hosting talks, workshops, mentor sessions, special events and more during based around the business and culture of touring, festival and live entertainment, three of the acts appearing at London Calling caught up with NME to share some insight about their life on the road.Taking to the stage at the Phoenix Arts Club, Lala Hayden said that she was looking forward to the next step of her “surreal” journey after taking an “indefinite break” as frontwoman of previous band Anteros. “I put an EP out last year and thought that would be it, but then slowly stuff has been falling into place,” Hayden told NME. “We’ll be putting more new music out this year and now we’re booking more festivals and shows.