Tag: Abe Seiferth

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Lukka Shares Dreamy and Meditative “Fabric of the Cosmos”

New York-based indie trio Lukka — Berlin-born, New York-based creative mastermind Franzi Syzmkowiak (guitar, vocals), Ashley Gonzalez (bass) and Simon “SiFi” Fishburn (drums) — have long operated at the crossroads of space rock, neo-psychedelia and synth-driven indie pop. The band’s sound is anchored around hypnotic grooves, immersive textures and melody-driven songwriting, frequently blending repetition with expansive, atmospheric arrangements featuring driving bass lines, propulsive rhythms, delay pedaled guitars and layered analogy synths, and equally atmospheric production.

Syzmkowiak has travelled across the globe, seeking a musical home that felt right. She had stints in Australia, New Zealand and Argentina before settling in New York. “New York City felt like the right place to meet like-minded people,” she says. “The reason I make music is that it serves as an escape from everyday reality and the problems of daily life. Songwriting helps me process what is happening around me. Music, and especially synthesizer sounds, takes me to another realm where I can feel at peace and experience emotions I have not felt elsewhere. Creating music almost feels like a religious act. Having a band and being an artist in this city has allowed me to meet so many other interesting people. Through these relationships, I feel that I am part of a larger creative community, which creates a strong and meaningful sense of connectedness.”

The trio’s third album, the Abe Seiferth-produced Wendekind is slated for a June 5, 2026 release. The band’s Syzmkowiak was born around the fall of the Berlin Wall. She explains that children, who were born in East Germany at that time were called wendekinder, a generation born into a new, free world. Her mom would always call her a wendekind. “It felt like the perfect title for the album,” she says.

Recorded at Brooklyn-based Transmitter Park Studios, Wendekind reportedly sees the band expanding upon the sound of 2022’s Something Human while pushing further into much more immersive, synth-driven territory.

Thematically, Wendekind sees the New York diving deeper into the metaphysical, tracing loss and memory, while questioning one’s place in an infinite and seemingly indifferent universe. For Syzmkowiak, the album is a deeply personal and reflective effort, moving between memories of the past, and hopes for the future while touring on space, time, chance and self-discovery.

“Over the past three years, a series of events pushed me to look inward and question what had been driving my choices and behavior,” Syzmkowiak says. “The album became a deeply personal and spiritual journey, leading me back to my roots and to memories of where I came from.”

Wendekind’s first single, “Fabric of the Cosmos” is a meditative slow-burn that features Syzmkowiak’s dreamily yearning delivery ethereally floating over glistening synths, boom bap-like drumming and phased out guitar. Seemingly channeling Pavo Pavo, the cinematic new single, as Syzmkowiak explains is “about trying to see beyond the three-dimensional world and being only able to-do that through e-motion (electric motion/vibrations), dreams or day visions. The song slips into the metaphysical world.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Endearments Return with Shimmering and Anthemic “Marianne”

Brooklyn-based indie outfit Endearments — Kevin Marksson (vocals, bass), Anjali Nair (guitar) and Will Haywood Smith (drums) — closed out last year by signing with Trash Casual, who will be releasing their Abe Seiferth–produced, full-length debut An Always Open Door. 

Slated for a March 6, 2026 release, the nine-song An Always Open Door will include “Real Deal,” “Summersun” and “Marianne,” the album’s third and final pre-release single. “Marianne” is a rousingly anthemic ballad that sees the band balancing introspective, heart worn on sleeve-driven lyrics and a cinematic sound. Seemingly nodding at some of the great 80s movie soundtrack tunes, like Simple Minds’ “Don’t You Think About Me” and Psychedelic Furs’ “Pretty In Pink,” An Always Open Door‘s latest single contends with long-distance longing, mixed messages and the possibility that your feelings and investment may be unfulfilled — or worse, unrequited.

“‘Marianne’ is about the uncertain and vulnerable moments at the beginning of a new relationship,” the band’s Marksson explains. “It’s a song about longing for someone who is far away, physically and emotionally, and what it takes to break down those barriers. We wanted the music video to emphasize that metaphor, with the band playing in a liminal place, bright and surreal, before the mirrors that are reflecting us literally shatter.”

The accompanying video continues their ongoing collaboration with director Paul Desilva.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Endearments Return with Yearning and Self-Searching “Summersun”

Brooklyn-based indie outfit Endearments — Kevin Marksson (vocals, bass), Anjali Nair (guitar) and Will Haywood Smith (drums) — closed out last year by signing with Trash Casual, who will be releasing their Abe Seiferth–produced, full-length debut An Always Open Door.

Slated for a March 6, 2026 release, the nine-song An Always Open Door will feature “Real Deal,” which firmly cements their unique, emotionally dense and lush synth-based take on indie rock paired with earnest, lived-in lyrics and rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses.

An Always Open Door‘s second and latest single “Summersun” is a deceptively upbeat and sauntering anthem that’s underpinned by a couple of bittersweet realizations: Time’s inexorable and endless march forward. And as you’re getting older, you’re also changing. Sometimes, those changes are on the margins but in tumultuous times, like ours, they can be major, startling unexpected and weird changes. And as a result, other than some fundamentally intrinsic qualities, we can all feel a bit like ships passing each other in the night, not quite understanding why or how you might feel so lonely and misunderstood. The song also contends with what it really means to fit yourself into someone else’s life for companionship and the bitter frustration and disappointment that comes from lying to yourself and your own reflection.

Continuing their ongoing collaboration with director Paul Desilva, the accompanying video, which was shot on Super 8 film follows two lonely Brooklyn residents on an introspective journey to Coney Island. Edited in a split screen, so that we see each one’s individual journey, the video captures something that’s deeply universal. We’ve all been that lonely sort mending a broken heart or left a daze after some massive, unexpected loss.

“‘Summersun’ is a song about losing track of yourself in the expectations of others, and how easy it is to fit into a mold someone else has made for you for the sake of love or companionship. The bridge of the song is meant to be a cathartic release — the guitars give way and then build up again to reinforce this feeling of wanting to be truly known, even while you still pretend to be someone that you’re not. We wanted the video to really convey that melancholy and self-searching. I love the way it cuts two stories together to show how our personal journeys often overlap in ways both internal and external.” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Endearments Shares Anthemic “Real Deal”

Brooklyn-based indie outfit Endearments — Kevin Marksson (vocals, bass), Anjali Nair (guitar) and Will Haywood Smith (drums) — closed out last year by signing with Trash Casual, who then released the cinematic, “Cannon,” a track that nods at Simple Minds and Tears for Fears, as well as contemporaries like Nation of Language.

The trio’s Abe Seiferth–produced, full-length debut An Always Open Door is slated for a March 6, 2026 release. The nine-song album will feature the band’s unique emotionally dense and lush synth-based take on indie rock. An Always Open Door‘s first official single, the nostalgia-inducing, New Order-like “Real Deal” showcases the band’s ability to pair earnest, lived-in lyrics with rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses. Thematically, “Real Deal” explores the dynamics of a slowly decaying relationship that culminates with the sudden and heartbreaking realization of being just an accessory to someone else’s desires.

Directed by Paul Desilva, the accompanying video follows a story of a drunken hookup and the self-conscious revelations that occur in its aftermath.

“‘Real Deal’ is a song about feeling like you’re just a supporting player in someone else’s romantic idealization,” Endearments’ Kevin Marksson explains. “I hint at Apollo and Daphne in the lyrics and the idea that someone can be so focused on what love ‘should’ feel like that they forget there is a real person on the other end. The music video plays with that concept in a fun way by having our heroine wake up in a strange apartment after what seemed like a perfect evening, but maybe wasn’t as perfect as she thought.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Endearments Share Yearning and Cinematic “Cannon”

Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and bassist Kevin Marksson has made a career out of wearing his heart on his sleeve, pouring years of diary entries into the music and lyrics of Endearments. On the project’s most recent EP, 2023’s self-released, Abe Seiferth-produced, It Can Be Like This, Marksson and his bandmates — Anjali Nair (guitar) and Will Haywood Smith (drums) — channel their frontman’s introspections into lush, reverb-soaked pop that evoke 4AD Records‘ heyday and Roxy Music.

The trio recently signed to Trash Casual, who released their latest single “Cannon.” Continuing an ongoing collaboration with Abe Seiferh, “Cannon” showcases a cinematic sound that features glistening synth oscillations, propulsive drumming and bursts of angular guitar paired with a rousingly anthemic hook and chorus serving as a lush, brooding bed for Marksson’s achingly yearning, melancholic delivery. The result is a song that simultaneously seems to nod at Simple Minds and Tears for Fears, as well as contemporaries like Nation of Language and others while anchored around deeply introspective, lived-in lyricism.

Directed by Gabriel Stanley, the accompanying video for “Cannon” employs a simple, bare-boned concept: Marksson singing and dancing to the song in a spotlight filled studio and gradually soaked by rain.

“‘Cannon’ is a song about apathy and addiction. It’s about living in a world where we see atrocities unfolding before our eyes, yet choose to willfully ignore or self-medicate because the pain we are witnessing is so overwhelming,” Endearments’ Kevin Marksson explains. “I knew we needed to keep the music video simple and focused on lyrics and movement. Even though I’m not a trained dancer, we worked with an amazing choreographer, Camilia Araque, who really helped me step out of my comfort zone and throw myself into the experience and emotion of the song.”

The Brooklyn-based trio is currently working on their Abe Seiferth-produced full-length debut, slated for an early 2026 release.