What do Prosecco, Minions, and a neon horse have in common? Reading Festival’s hottest new acts won’t tour without them. By Bex April May

This much we learn backstage at Reading Festival 2025 – where we caught up with some of the most exciting, viral and critically-acclaimed names in pop, indie and rock right now: Pale Waves (above), Nieve Ella, Antony Szmierek, Nxdia, and Del Water Gap. Between bottles of bubbly, vintage chorus pedals, and bizarre warm-up rituals, they opened up about the tools and quirks that keep their shows running and their next viral hits coming – from guitars, to mic essentials and boxes of Minions.

From songwriting secrets to festival antics that almost ended in jail, Reading’s breakout stars had plenty to confess when we caught them backstage…

What can we expect from your show?

Pale Waves: Heather strutting. Charlie grinding. Lesbians. Us damaging our necks. Jealousy is probably our favourite to play live, because it’s so unhinged. We often play it last, and break the bass on the floor all the time. It feels like the right thing to do.

Nieve Ella: Fun. Most of these festivals recently have just been joy. Everyone’s jumping and singing – just a good time. My band are my best friends, so we just project love and happiness.

Del Water Gap: It’s like an AA meeting. No, just kidding! I sing, I jump around. Sometimes I wear slutty clothes. Today I’m more covered. Sometimes I’ll say something wholesome, sometimes I’ll say something funny.

What’s a particularly memorable festival that stands out for you?

Pale Waves:  When we last played Summer Sonic in Japan. We love Japan. Very sweaty. For antics though, Riotfest in Chicago – Charlie had a house window key and realised it would fit in a buggy. We had a go – we got chased by the buggy police, and we nearly ran over Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance as they were getting on stage. We could’ve run over one of the biggest singers of all time. We’d have had a lot of angry emos after us. And gone to jail.

Tells us about the gear you bring when you’re touring festivals – what kit do you have on stage?

Pale Waves: Always my Vox Phantom guitars – I can’t go anywhere without them. They’re part of me. We also have very specific picks. I use three different ones for different things. If they’re not on stage, I kind of freak out.

Nieve Ella: We take a massive van, and try to shove everything we’ve ever owned instrument-wise in it. I take five guitars. And do you know what else we’ve been bringing around? A massive cardboard box of Minions. People give us Minions – and we just collect and collect. This is our last festival today, so now I’m going to go home with this box of Minions. What am I going to do with them all? I’ve got four boxes at home already. I think I’m going to give them to a charity shop. I want them to go to a good home. Plus, every single show, someone has Minions face paint on.

Antony Szmierek: It’s a full band. It could have easily just been me, a microphone, and a backing track, but I was determined it wasn’t going to be that from the beginning. So, we have a live guitar – my brother plays guitar in the band. We have live bass and synth bass, and then we’ve got Robin at the back with drum machines and synth, where the drummer would usually be. It’s quite a unique setup – I’ve not seen many people do it.

Del Water Gap: I bring a neon horse. It’s called Horse With Bowl Cut. He’s my logo. I drew him on a napkin, and he’s exactly what he sounds like: a horse with a bowl cut. He lives on stage, and he is my spirit animal.

Any other must-haves in your kit that you always take with you?

Pale Waves: A bottle of Prosecco. And a fan!

Antony Szmierek: Guinness is the only thing we always ask for.And I’ve got this weird old Australian vocal coach that I watch on YouTube to warm up. It’s from 1983 and he’s got weird Windows Movie Maker screens. He goes through a vocal warm-up which I don’t really need, but it just makes me feel calm. He’s called Andrew Castle. He’s my guy.

Del Water Gap: A toothbrush.

Nxdia: A coffee place nearby. Sometimes you need to go and touch grass. And I just need caffeine.

Tell us about your songwriting process – how does an idea turn into a hit that a festival crowd are singing back to you?

Pale Waves: It starts differently every time. Sometimes a melody comes to me, sometimes a lyric or a concept. Once that original idea is there, everything falls into place. The worlds merge together with the music and songwriting. You need a twinkle, nice chords, and some yodelling –  that’s a Pale Waves song.

Nieve Ella: There’s four of us, and recently, we went to a house in the middle of nowhere – on an airfield in Maidenhead – for a week, shut ourselves away and wrote, then recorded them in the room together. It’s just being around my best friends really.

Nxdia: Every time I’m in the studio, I close my eyes and if I can’t imagine this live – with drums hitting, with guitars – I’m not interested. I want moments that will translate that way.  So when I’m writing, I try to make it as personal as possible, but also something I can scream. I want to really enjoy that, and hopefully someone else has a cathartic moment and thinks, ‘I’m so happy I get to scream this!’

Del Water Gap: I’m a slow writer. I think I cracked it on this album. I did some writing trips with Gabe Goodman, who I write with a lot. For me, it’s about making space – no phone, no internet, just trying to have peace and quiet. And then as the noise comes down, usually some sort of miracle happens. We spent time in Mexico, we went out to Long Island and did some writing on the beach. I love reading poetry too, that always helps me get in the mood.

Antony Szmierek: It’s strange – you can’t manufacture that beginning bit. For me, it all happened by accident. I was a teacher for a long time, and the first tune that got on the radio, I didn’t think about it at all. It was just a monologue over a loop – no overthinking. But now, when you know people are going to hear it, and you’re going to perform it to thousands, you start to think, “This bit will be great live.”I write all the words first, then tunes. I don’t know many people who do it like that. I’ll have a complete story written, then I think, how do I either cheer it up with music if it’s too sad, or make it more sad if it’s too chirpy? I like to see-saw them out a bit, but I couldn’t teach it. It’s just an intrinsic thing that happens. If I overthink it, it’s like trying to remember your PIN number – if I think too hard about it, it just leaves me.

What about in the studio – what’s your must have bit of kit?

Pale Waves: Definitely all the guitars, and a chorus pedal. Last time in the studio, we bought two of the same chorus because we thought we’d lost it. We ended up with three between us – it was this vintage chorus from the ‘90s.

Nieve Ella: I used to write with my guitar a lot, but now I don’t even use it. I used to want my Fender Jag-Stang to be the sound of my music. But for the newest stuff I’ve been creating, like my new single ‘Good Grace’, I didn’t play a single instrument. I just have to have a mic in my hand the whole time. I’ll just record and record and record until I’m happy with what it sounds like. I’ll jump around the room with a mic in my hand the whole time. Then I’ll also have a Guinness.

Antony Szmierek: It’s usually just me. A producer is my big bit of kit. I’m aware I’m really annoying. I’ll sing into my phone a guitar line, asking it to be like that, and they’ll ask what key it’s in, and I’m like, ‘How the f*ck should I know? Can we just make it?’ So someone who understands me as a human is the most important thing. I’ll sometimes try to get demos as far as I can on my own, but I’m not a producer. I’m quite shit. I need a human person. And a comfy chair – I like to swing my legs around, so a spinny chair helps as well.

Nxdia: Obviously a guitar. Either my sh*tty Ibanez Iceman – it’s so old, it was so cheap, some guy gave it to me – or a notebook. I need it so I can doodle, write down what I’m thinking. As long as I have a notebook and a little Strat, I’m fine. Then, I love the Shure SM7B mic. I think it’s great. I need a mic I can feel close to. All mics have different sounds, but the SM7B is my favourite.

You’re part of this new wave of cool, alternative grunge pop artists coming out in the UK. It feels like there’s a resurgence. Are you seeing that in the genre?

Nxdia: Recession pop – I’ve seen that a lot. Hopefully I’m part of it. I think people are angrier, and people are actually putting out what they want. I’m seeing more indie artists, more people finding avenues outside of the traditional music path. I get so excited at festivals because I know I’ll bump into people I love, I’ll see friends I love watching perform, and I’ll find new acts. It’s amazing – like being in a school canteen, in a really good way.

You’ve had hits like your single ‘Feel Anything’ go viral and trend on TikTok. What are your thoughts when it comes to TikTok and musicians?

Nxdia: I completely understand why people might find it stressful, and I do get the aspect of it that could feel draining. However, I love social media. I think it’s f*cking cool. It’s a good way of connecting with people. You reach parts of the world where you wouldn’t otherwise. I like being able to decide what I’m recording, what I’m posting, what I decide to share. Half of it’s obviously daft, but I really enjoy it, and I’m finding it more and more interesting as time goes on, because it changes a lot. I think it’s fascinating. It’s a whole different beast.

What’s one song you wish you’d written but didn’t?

Nieve Ella: Probably ‘Don’t Delete the Kisses’ by Wolf Alice. That’s one of my favourite songs.

Pale Waves: ‘Linger’ by The Cranberries.

Del Water Gap: Beethoven’s Ninth. Imagine if I could say I’d written that. Or ‘My Way’ by Frank Sinatra. I played my first album for my grandma when I finished it, and she said it was bad. Then she played me ‘My Way’ and said it should be more like that. So I’ve always had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about ‘My Way’.

If you had to swap lives with another band or artist, who would it be?

Pale Waves: Coldplay – playing stadiums everywhere in the world. But then they have a family vibe. We want to be rowdy too.

Nieve Ella: I’d love to swap with Amyl and the Sniffers. Their life is completely different to mine. The music is so different. I don’t know how they keep up so much energy.

If you could collab with anyone, who’s the dream?

Pale Waves: If I’m going totally unrealistic – well, maybe not too unrealistic – Robert Smith.

Antony Szmierek: I really want to do something with Wet Leg. I really like Rhian’s voice – she’s got a spoken word-y bounce to her voice. I haven’t asked her yet. I met her in a pub recently, so I need to ask her. I really like Lambrini Girls and Soft Play. They’re a few people who are making important music that feels like it’s about something. That’s who I’d like to work with.

Del Water Gap: There’s this children’s singer in the US called Raffi. It’d be cool to work with him, because it’s so random. I don’t know if he even plays music anymore. The first cassette I ever had growing up was Raffi. My parents don’t believe me that I have a career; they think I’m a total bum. But I think if I collaborated with Raffi, they’d actually believe I have a career, because they know who that is. That’s the goal!

The artists spoke to us at Reading Festival. Sign up for Reading 2026 at readingfestival.com

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