To get you through that mid-week blues, Oh Comely now brings you a Wednesday playlist, uniting old and new sounds under the banner of a theme.

Today’s Diary of Laura Palmer turns a not-so-innocent blue eye to the uncanny and surreal. Welcome to a musical landscape of Twin Peaks-like strangeness.

It’s time for Five Questions and a Song, the weekly column where we delve into the minds of new musical talent and ask them to share one of their tracks for your listening pleasure.

Music is just one of the things Ben J. Wood, better known as Yo’True, does well. He is also a producer, artist and an embroiderer of celebrity jackets (having manufactured bespoke pieces for the likes of The Vaccines and The Dum Dum Girls). The unique sounding debut album Wild Rice was released yesterday on Rogues Records and features one of Ben’s ecstatically colourful artworks on the cover. Combining a myriad of styles, from soul and R&B to punk and dance, Yo’True’s sound is as adventurous as it is confident. Check out the single ‘Time Trials’ below and make sure you get down to one of his London gigs, either at the Shacklewell Arms tomorrow night or at The Finsbury on August 15^th.

Photo: Jo Bongard

Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Ben. I'm alive in 2013 and I've got an album that was released yesterday, a ticket for the opening fixture of Yeovil Town's first ever Championship season away at Millwall, a set of Letraset markers that I might like even more than Sharpies, a new yellow hat, a lift back to London tomorrow morning and an unfathomable fear of talking on the telephone.

How would you describe your album Wild Rice?

The album is eight strange stories disguised as love songs, or it's a short, precise pop album with no attention to the rules of structure and form in pop music, or it's my misinterpretation of the best bits of the 70s, 80s and 90s. It has a colourful front cover and a drawing of a pony on the back and it's basically nothing like anybody else's album.

What was the first record you bought?

Metallica's ...And Justice For All. I skipped the bad music years because my parents are freakishly cool. What? Metallica's not cool? Good one.

Where do you go on a night out?

Somewhere I can eat delicious food and talk to a friend or loved one without having to raise my voice. I like to go to a different place every time, because it's important to be adventurous, even when you're struggling financially. The only time it's ok to have my personal space invaded and not be able to hear myself think is at an excellent rock show. To be honest most of my nights out happen because of one of these

‪What can you tell us about this song?

‘Time Trials’ is a velvety slow jam about a couple of racing pigeons. The first, our narrator, doesn't fly home but flies off to see the world. The second flies straight back faster than ever. And apparently the second one is the winner, while the first one is just lonely. I was struggling to find a way to finish the song after the Juno solo when my friend Henry recommended a little research into R. Kelly and D'Angelo. It turns out they'd already written the ending for me ten years ago, all I had to do was make it slightly more difficult to listen to.

www.yo-true.com

A bawdy, relentlessly funny film with strong female leads, The Heat often calls to mind Bridesmaids, with which it shares not only its co-star (Melissa McCarthy) and director (Paul Feig), but a similar go-for-broke comedic style.

The first film from screenwriter Katie Dippold (previously a writer and co-producer for superlative U.S. sitcom Parks and Recreation), The Heat eschews weddings for an affectionate riff on the 80s buddy cop movies that she grew up loving. Taking a break from working on the screenplay to its sequel, Katie chatted with us about the making of the film.

Apparently the word ‘Fuck’ is said in The Heat over 170 times. Is that something you feel strangely proud of?

I do, actually. I know some people would say that bad language cheapens things, but I just feel strongly that Melissa McCarthy’s character would swear all the time. So there are probably about 90 fucks in the script, and then Melissa added a bunch more and then Paul added even more on top of that. It was a real fuck spiral. 

Did you have Melissa McCarthy in mind from the start?

I tried very hard not to get my heart set on anyone in particular when I was writing it because you just never know how it’s going to go – for all I knew they could have cast two men. But there were scenes I would write where Melissa would pop in my mind and I knew she’d be hilarious in them, because in Bridesmaids she was the funniest thing ever. I got very lucky that Melissa and Sandra Bullock wanted to do it. They’d wanted to make something together anyway so the timing was really fortunate.

The film was turned around very quickly, in about 20 months. What was that like?

Everything happened so fast that I didn’t get that much time to be excited about it, with rewrites and pre-production. The script was sold in late March, I sat down to meet with Paul Feig in late April, in May I was meeting with the actresses and getting their notes, we were in pre-production in early June and then we started shooting in July. It was crazy. It was the hardest I’ve ever worked in my life.

Did you write it while working on Parks and Recreation?

I would work on the film at night and on weekends. It was hard because we were in the middle of shooting episodes so it was probably our busiest time. But I was writing it on spec, so my big fear was that I’d be halfway through and then see on a website that someone else was doing a female buddy cop movie. The more I’d work on it the more it motivated me to finish, because I didn’t want all that effort to be done for nothing.

Was it challenging to go from a writers’ room to doing something where it’s just you?

It’s different – with Parks and Rec you’re in this room full of hilarious people, and when you’re off on a script for a movie you’re kind of isolated, so it was a definitely a big transition.

I missed sitting there and hearing a bunch of funny people talk. It was always my dream to be in a writers’ room; when I first got to Parks and Rec I was blown away that there were all these writers from my favourite shows, like The Simpsons and Kids in the Hall, so it was really fun to be around a room of people spitting out jokes. It was a blast. Luckily when we were in production and doing the rewrites I at least had Paul Feig to talk to, who’s just incredibly smart and funny.

It’s so rare to see an action comedy starring two women. Were you very aware of that when you were writing it? 

Definitely. That was sort of the whole thing, because I always loved buddy cop movies when I was young – they were so funny and badass and the cops would take down a drug lord but there’d be great banter back and forth. I always wanted to do that. I didn’t want to just date them, I wanted to do that job, you know? I actually wanted to be in the FBI growing up. This was wish fulfillment for me. So I wrote it thinking that other females would hopefully feel the same way.

What’s most refreshing is how hyper competent the characters are and how focused they are on their jobs – romance doesn’t even really come in to the film.

That was really important to me, for two reasons. It was important to me that they be great at their jobs, and the film not being about them struggling and being held back by men. I wanted them to be competent and tough. I wanted them to have some severe personality flaws that were holding back their lives, but I wanted their jobs to be the one thing that they were really great at.

And then with the romance stuff, it just feels like so many movies are about the woman finding a husband, or will she get this boyfriend, and she’s talking to her friends about this guy and they’re giving advice. That’s all well and good and I hope for everyone to have a romantic interest in life, but I just wanted it to not be the focus for a woman for this one thing.

Growing up, so much emphasis for girls is about getting a boyfriend. There are so many movies about male camaraderie and male bonding and there are not as many for females, especially big comedies. I just felt like it would be good for young females if there were more movies that explored camaraderie and that kind of friendship.

If girls grow up thinking that they have to get a husband or boyfriend because that’s the only thing that apparently matters when they watch movies, I think they’re just going to be competitive and meaner to each other.

Finally, is it true that you wrote and starred in a one woman murder mystery?

Yes! It was ridiculous. I basically wrote the most impossible, physically taxing show in the world. Every time I would do it I would be so exhausted and want to die throughout – just lay down on stage and die. But I feel like part of the fun was seeing me struggle. I’m really not good at doing characters either. It’s hard for me to get my voice to alter from my natural state, so of course I wrote a show where there were six different characters accusing each other of murder. One would accuse someone and then I’d take the costume off on stage, quickly run over to a chair and put on a different costume and say “How dare you!” There was a lot of stuff like: one character would throw a drink in another character’s face and then I’d run back and throw a drink in my own face.

The Heat is in UK cinemas on 31st July.

Dear readers, doodlers, designers and chefs. This is a fun, space-themed doodle challenge. A line-up of the best entries will be printed in Issue 17, due out in late August. Here's the deal.

The year is 3017. Alfred the astronaut has landed on Mercury, a planet so inhospitable that scientists way back in 2008 claimed no Human landing would ever be possible. But Alfred is a Human-Oid and--yes--he's up there on Mercury walking around, having a fag, and missing his Human-Oid grandmother who he's left behind on planet Earth2.

Photos: NASA's Messenger mission to Mercury.

Alfred meets an alien, and we'd like you to draw what this Mercurial alien looks like. All we have to help you is Alfred's fragmentary space report, sent just before his communications went down for reasons that are as yet unexplained.

"Hi, mission control! Alfred the astronaut calling. I first saw this alien on Mercury and when he spotted me his 4 toopers creased into what looked like a lovely smile. He was oval shaped, I would say, with a thin shadow and two large tephods. He carried with him a beautiful funigutts and ran very quickly on his --[inaudible]"

The recording cuts out there and we haven't heard from Alfred since, so your investigations into what exactly he encountered would be a great help. Email your entries to [email protected] by Thursday 1st August.

Footnote 347: The History of Earth2

Earth2 is the planet Alfred grew up on. Earth2 bears remarkable similarly to the climate and landscape of the original Planet Earth inhabited by Humans up to the year 2099. In that year, the Bigger Bang took place on a land mass on Planet Earth called "Norway". 10 so-called "Norwegian" teenagers were located in that region. Our research suggests that these 10 were smoking spliffs in a friend's bedroom, listening to music by the mythical goddess "Britney Spears" when the Bigger Bang happened. Now, while this is a space event yet to be fully understood, we think that when the Planet Earth exploded, only those 10 teenagers survived all other Human Beings. Their smokey bedroom was catapulted into the atmosphere along with a large chunk of Planet Earth's land mass, and this was the basis of the self-propagating Earth2 land mass that we know today. Crucially, this version of the Bigger Bang may also account for the effects "Britney Spears" music when enjoyed though the fog of well-rolled spliff. After all, "Being Stoned On Britney" saved the lives of those 10 teenagers and turned them into Human-Oids.

To get you through that mid-week blues, Oh Comely now brings you a Wednesday playlist, uniting old and new sounds under the banner of a theme.

Today’s Romeo + Juliet proudly wallows in heartbreak, hopelessness and, above all, a seemingly limitless desire for the unattainable. Tragic love stories always outlive fairy tale endings.

It’s time for Five Questions and a Song, the weekly column where we delve into the musical minds of upcoming bands and ask them to share one of their tracks for your listening pleasure.

Super Best Friends Club materialised when drummer Max Hallett summoned a group of like-minded individuals for a performance at the Royal Festival Hall, gathered everyone in one room and locked the door. 48 hours later they emerged with a concept of “optimism, nudity, body paint, frantic dance routines and blissed-out pop”. Inspired by Mongolian throat singers Huun Huur Tu, Liars and Britney Spears, the sextet’s recently released debut album is a carnivalesque musical extravaganza - just check out their euphoric single 'Yes You Are’ below. Today, Oh Comely talks to singer Jonah Brody about feelings, E.T.,  and how to not get too lost in the woods too often.

Photo: SBFC

Tell us about your band.

We're a collection of optimistic people who think music is about having an incredible feeling, sometimes on your own feeling sad, or, most of the time, like being naked with lots of people and experiencing empowering humanisms everywhere. We do other things as well. Some of us make films, teach yoga, build eco-villages in Brazil or, more recently, tour with Sam Lee and Primus. This involves various levels of positivity. Generally we try and sometimes it feels like failure, or, other times, like enormous ballooning euphoria.

If your life was a film, what would be the soundtrack?

Oddly enough the answer is Talkie Walkie by Air. I don't even think it's that amazing an album, but it just seems to define my existence.

Who’s the missing member out of South Park’s original Super Best Friends?

E.T.

Are you a liar? [asked by last week’s interviewee Katie Stelmanis of Austra]

No, but sometimes I feel insufficient and exaggerate.

What can you tell us about this song?

‘Yes You Are’ is actually for my little brother. It felt so true at the time. You're young, you have no idea what life’s about and you get shovelled about from place to place and it's amazingly hard sometimes. So it's a song for a feeling that you might not recognise at the time, but which brings you out into the world. Essentially, whatever you do or end up doing, and whatever people think of it, you’re the most amazing thing ever. If you can feel that real truth, you’ll have a good life and bring goodness into the world around you. And not get too lost in the woods too often.

www.superbestfriendsclub.co.uk

Last week, I wondered on Twitter where the nearest deep body of cold water was. The votes in favour of Hampstead Ponds were so overwhelming that it actually prodded me into going for a pre-work dip.

It was beautiful and quiet (well, at 8AM) and cold, and only £2. I was astonished that the Hampstead Ponds had been just a bus ride away from me all this time. 

So, folks, what are you recommendations for an outdoor swim? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook, and I'll add them to the list below - it's looking a bit London-centric at the moment.

We haven't vetted the locations below, so use your common sense or Wild Swimming's sea and freshwater guides on safety.

General UK

Wild Swimming
Outdoor Swimming Society
Wild Swim map

London

Hampstead Ponds
The Serpentine
Oasis Sports Centre on Totenham Court Road (@missalicebmbds)
A whole heap of recommendations from @jennylandreth
Guided swim of the Thames

North West

Picks from the Creative Tourist

South East

Wild Swimming open group

Bath

Claverton Weir (@sianannalewis)

Cornwall

Falmouth University Sea Swimming Club 

Devon

Spitchwick Common, Dartmoor

Dorset

Studland Beach

Gloucestershire

Guide by So Glos

The second collaboration between filmmaker Drake Doremus and actress Felicity Jones, Breathe In is about a homesick foreign exchange student who moves in with an American family and finds herself getting too close to music teacher Keith (Guy Pearce). As with Felicity and Drake’s first film together – 2011’s Sundance-winning Like Crazy – Breathe In is entirely improvised, its naturalistic tone helping it avoid the clutches of melodrama.

Despite being only 29, Felicity is a veteran in the industry, having acted for almost two decades. Ahead of Breathe In’s release today, we chatted to her about the film and her long career in acting.

You’ve been an actress since you were a child. Has the way you approach it changed?

It’s changed constantly. When you’re acting as a child you don’t really know what you’re doing, you just sort of have an instinct. It was something I enjoyed doing and it came quite naturally, but in a way when you become an adult you have to forget that you ever acted before. You want to find a new way of working – as a child actor you’re just being told what to do, and then when you’re an adult you realise that the best actors don’t wait for instruction. If someone comes up with a better idea you’ll take it, but first you must have a strong idea of how you want to play something.

Did that happen naturally or was a certain production where you felt that you’d reached a new stage?

Well, I went to University for three years and that provided a natural break. I was doing the Archers on the radio throughout that, but in terms of filmmaking or television I wasn’t really appearing in anything. I suppose I grew up when I was at University and then when I finished I wanted to get back into acting. It felt like I was starting over again as an adult.

How do you keep it interesting for yourself when you’ve been acting for so long?

I think the key is making sure that you are being challenged, that you feel nervous. As soon as you don’t feel that way then you’re probably going to be doing something you’ve done before. You need to be pushed and that’s when you’re going to produce interesting work. I think people become complacent when they feel like they’re doing the same thing over and over again. 

Is that why improvisation appeals to you? Do you find liberating, or is it scary?

Oh, I love it. It’s the opposite of scary. I feel like it’s such a good approach to take to other scripts, too. You’ve got to make sure that you’re not just saying the lines for the sake of saying them. It’s why I love working with Drake. We don’t give up until we get to the truth of something. We’re definitely very argumentative and we’ll fall out, but it’s all for the same end so it’s never lasting. It’s so collaborative and we both just want the best for the story.

Does ambition factor into the parts you choose? Do you ever think you should do a certain type of role in order to get another one?

For me, choosing roles is more about having an instinct towards the character, the story or the director. You’re looking for an affinity with something or for a script to captivate you in some way, because you have no control over how these things turn out. As an actor you’re just one element in the whole thing. You make things that strike you at that time and then the rest is up to the gods. I think that’s why it’s best not to watch your own work.

It must be so easy to be disappointed. 

It is, and that’s why you have to know why you did something. As long as you had a gut reaction to something and you felt it was going to interest you then you don’t get too disheartened when a project turns out differently to how you thought it would.

A lot of it depends on where you are in your life at that time. If I’ve been doing a lot of very serious dramas about relationships, say, then I find I want to do something else. I just went and worked on the new Spider-Man film and I wanted to do that because it was a new sort of challenge and not like anything I’d ever done before.

Spider-Man couldn’t be further from Breathe In really, could it?

Exactly! And that’s what’s great about being an actor. It’s always in flux, and you have the freedom to try different things. You’re not ultimately defining the product; you’re part of it but not the person that controls the edits, so you can flirt with different worlds. I think you have to give yourself up to the flux.

Breathe In is out on 19th July in the UK.