Lady Grinning Soul: Movements Festival

Hey, y’all! So glad to have you here for the first publication of Lady Grinning Soul. I have been playing in bands and writing music since I was in grade school and love learning about music as much as I love creating and performing it. Last year I traveled to 15 countries in order to report on local rock music scenes around the world, and LGS is my way of bringing this work into Oxford. I hope this column serves as a way to stay connected to local artists, promote shows, and provide commentary on up-and-coming projects. Feel free to get in touch at ladygrinningsouloxford@gmail.com with any inquiries!

This Valentine’s day, Oxford Music Scene Magazine (OMS) (@omsmag2026) will be presenting the Movements Festival. Fifteen acts will be featured at 4 Cowley venues from 2pm till late. Performances will take place at Truck Store and The Bullingdon from 2-5, and at James Street Tavern and The Library Pub from 5pm onwards.

This week I set out to speak with several artists on the Movements lineup about their work and their experiences with the Oxford music scene.

Photo credits to Stewart Garden, used with permission

The festival has been organized by promoter Stewart Garden who has been an integral part of the Oxford live music scene for years. He runs OMS and promotes regular gigs around the city, often at Common Ground, in addition to the Movements’ venues.

Stewart: Movements Festival is mostly made up of acts that we feature in the magazine and most of them have played one of our gigs at some point. There are quite a few we haven’t seen play yet – looking forward to watching them. Some are more established on the local scene and some are quite new — we’re really excited to see them all play on one day.

Headliner Max Blansjaar has been making music for close to a decade now, starting off by releasing EPs on cassette. His first album False Comforts was released in June of 2024. Check it out at Truck Music Store:

Stewart: We have done a few gigs with Max Blansjaar in the last few years and they have all been brilliant. He’s been on the cover of the magazine a couple of times – the first time I interviewed him he wasn’t allowed in the pub because he was too young!

Max Blansjaar. Photo by @pittoad on Instagram, used with permission

Max (@maxblansjaarmusic) grew up attending punk shows with his sister in Oxford. His writing is inspired by the likes of Cate Le Bon, the Velvet Underground, Magnetic Fields, Juana Molina, and Elephant 6 bands. His live band includes Ed Gallyot (guitar), Ellis Currell (bass), Ben Walker (keys), and Tom Hitch (drums), who will play alongside him at Movements.

With a new album in the works, I was curious about his previous experience with recording and producing.

Max: The EPs I did all myself. The first one I did at school mostly, during lunch breaks. The second one I just took a week in my friend’s shed – Ben, who runs the Beanie Tapes label. Beanie Tapes has put out all my music, and Ben has a shed with some studio gear in it so I recorded the second EP there. For the album, we went to New York and we recorded with two people called Katie Von Schleicher and Nate Mendelssohn… Ben sort of pulled it all together in a very amazing way, to me. We were there for three weeks in 2023.

Me: Do you have a way that you like to, maybe not “pitch” your sound – but if you had to define your sound, or where it’s going? Not to put you in a box!

Max: No, I love being in a box, haha… I guess I would say it is indie pop music. It used to be a little bit more punky in terms of the ethos because it sounded a little bit more jagged, because I was producing everything myself basically, so that was quite fun. I think having that jaggedness or that looseness is what I would try and work towards more. A lot of my favorite bands now are bands who don’t sound like they’re recording to a grid, so it’s all slightly loose.

I asked Max which song or album he wishes he could have been a part of during the songwriting or production process.

Max: Odelay by Beck is an album that I just really wish I would have come up with, conceptually, and also just how far it reaches – you can make probably ten or twelve different albums following just one thread in that.

Me: Dads love it…

Max: Dads love it. So that’s kind of where I’m coming from. But I’m also thinking about Joanna Newsom, that album Ys that she did, which is 4 songs and each of them is like 9 minutes long. Just her and a harp and these incredible string arrangements. I wish I had that storytelling ability, to stretch stuff across 9 minutes and hold the attention for that long. I think she’s quite remarkable.

Max absolutely does have that storytelling ability, by the way. I’m very excited to see his set in February, as is Aris Sabetai of Mount St. Helen (@mount.st.helen) – another member of the Movement lineup and a fellow fan of Max’s work.

Photo by Finlay Yates, used with permission

Aris is a 22 year old graduate of the Oxford music department who writes, produces, and arranges under the alias Mount St. Helen. His live band is made up of Francesco Reni, Joe Smith, and Ryan Taylor-Costin. He has been writing in the Mount St. Helen style since lockdown, but has been producing under the alias since 2023. Aris is a cellist, first and foremost, but his guitar work is influenced by hardcore, emo, and post-punk elements. The result is a stringed-up shoegaze blend: your new favorite dream-pop.

Aris and I sat down in Greens Cafe to discuss his upcoming set. He’ll be playing at 2pm, jumpstarting the day with a preview of his new release “Nineteen” (out February 16th!).

Me: What are you looking forward to, day-of?

Aris: Yeah, all of it, really! It seems like a really great lineup with a lot of very scene important bands and artists. I really am looking forward to Premium Leisure, Chris Barker is a phenomenal producer in his own right. Max Blansjaar – never not been to a good show, great guy and amazing, very aesthetically driven indie artist. Shock Horror, as well. Sort of Art-rocky, really cool like Smashing Pumpkins and American Football all together– two really highly-acclaimed bands of mine. And I think Octavia Freud is doing a DJ set after, that’s gonna be really fun. If I’m still standing at the end, then it’s a good sign.

After speaking with Aris, I reached out to Shock Horror (SH; @abandcalledshockhorror) to see what they were looking forward to most, day-of.

Photo by @pittoad, used with permission

Me: Tell me a little bit about your music! How did you get started, what should the audience expect, who are some of your inspirations?

SH: All four of us in Shock Horror are Oxford locals, but we’ve recently relocated to Bristol. We had a super busy 2025 with the release of our debut EP “Terraform!”, our first festival slot at Truck and tons and tons of shows around the UK. We’ve been told our genre might be post-punk, or post-rock… post-something. It’s best not to think about it too much.

Me: How did you get involved with Movements?

SH: We’ve had a close affiliation with OMS Magazine for a while now, so we were more than happy to join what looks like quite a stacked lineup.

Me: What are you looking forward to?

SH: This’ll be our first show of 2026 (excluding a midnight house party set on New Year’s), so we can’t wait to get the ball rolling again. Having basically the whole month of January off work has been an unusual feeling; we’re all sort of itching to get back into it.

I think we know almost everyone on the Movements lineup – it’s a really good representation of the Oxford scene. I’d urge everyone to go and see Sweet Gene. They’ll be travelling all the way down from Manchester, and we’ve had a great time sharing the bill with them Up North recently. Premium Leisure are always class as well– we’re a fan of anything involving Mr. Chris Barker. What a bloody legend.

Me: What are you planning on playing?

SH: Well, we’ve not gone into the rehearsal room yet this year, but I imagine we’ll be revisiting the material from our record and sprinkling in some sparkly new stuff.

Me: Anything you would like to share about upcoming music or shows?

SH: Our next couple of releases are basically done– we’re sitting down with aforementioned legend Chris Barker soon to do some mixing and final touches. So that’s really exciting. And then beyond that, loads and loads of shows– I think the band is feeling a bit New Year, New Me, and we’ll be stepping into our next little era very soon.

My last conversation about Movements was with artist Genevieve Miles (@genevieve_miles). I’m really looking forward to her self-described witchy alt-rock act.

Genevieve: I’ve made music for as long as I can remember. I’d record songs onto my ipod Nano, haha! Music was always on in the house growing up, my parent’s love for music was definitely a big reason why it is such a big part of my life now. They had a great CD collection. Connection with nature has always been a massive inspiration, too. We’re currently recording at Somerton Castle in Lincoln which has been incredible, it’s such a beautiful place to create. I release everything independently, which is a lot of work, but so worth it.

Photo by @oscarwelsh on Instagram, used with permission

Genevieve: I’m so excited to be back at The Bullingdon, I don’t think I’ve played there since I was 16, and it’s always a venue that I dreamed of playing as a kid. Playing gigs is my favourite part of doing music. Creating connection in the room, in this world where we often feel so separate, it’s the most magical thing and Oxford crowds are always so welcoming. We’ve got our first headline tour in spring which I’m super excited about and we’ll be in Oxford at Common Ground on 30th April.

According to Stewart Garden, Movements will have something for everyone. The shows at Truck Store will be slightly more acoustic and stripped back, with heavier alt and post-punk features starting later in the day.

Stewart: Generally you’ll find the best of the bands around Oxford at the moment with a couple of out of towners – Sweet Gene are from Manchester – we had them play with Shock Horror in July last year and they went down so well we just had to ask them back again. Premium Leisure is Chris Barker who is the guy behind Willie J. Healy, who has been touring with Arctic Monkeys in Europe recently. He made a brilliant album and we are honoured to have him involved with this.