Porridge Radio

Porridge Radio is a British indie rock band formed in Brighton in 2015 and centered on the singer and songwriter Dana Margolin^[2]. Margolin began the project after learning guitar and writing songs alone in her room^[1].

The early lineup also included Maddie Ryall on bass, Georgie Stott on keyboards and Sam Yardley on drums^[2]. Their first full-band album, Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers, appeared in August 2016 and was recorded in Yardley's shed^[2]. The second album, Every Bad, came out on Secretly Canadian in 2020 and received a Mercury Prize nomination^[3].

Margolin has said she began making music alone as a teenager in 2012, with little knowledge of songwriting or production, and that the raw sound of the early recordings came from not knowing what she was doing^[4]. She has since moved to London while her bandmates remain in Brighton, and the sea she once looked to for comfort remains a recurring image in her songs^[4].

Margolin has said she began learning guitar and writing songs at around eighteen or nineteen, after moving to Brighton, where a friend encouraged her to play open mic nights^[4]. Her bandmate Georgie Stott persuaded her into a first proper gig at a local festival, and the rest of the group came from that circle^[4]. The sea at Brighton, which she describes as both frightening and calming, became a lasting influence on her songwriting^[4].

Her method is built on repetition: she distills a situation to its core feeling, then repeats it in different registers until its meaning shifts^[4]. That approach reached a wider audience when the band signed to Secretly Canadian in December 2019 and released the single “Lilac”^[5]. Ryall left the band in March 2023, and in January 2025 the group announced it would disband after its final tours^[2].