Tag: Giant Music

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Big Wild Teams Up With Phantogram on Slinky and Dance Floor Friendly “Too Loud”

Jackson Stell is a rising producer and artist, who initially started his career in his native Massachusetts as hip-hop producer, known as J Beatz. Following a life-altering trip to Big Sur, Stell switched creative lanes, adopting influences from the area’s natural beauty and open spaces. As Big Wild, the Massachusetts-based artist refines alt/indie electronic music by blending organic elements, lush soundscapes with bold, genre-defying creativity and panache. 

Stell’s breakthrough was back in 2015 when he toured with acclaimed electronic outfit Odesza and remixed “Say My Name.” That year also saw the release of “Aftergold,” feat. Tove Stryke, which stopped the Spotify Global Viral charts. 

Building upon a rapidly growing profile, Stell followed up with 2017’s Invincible EP and his full-length debut, 2019’s Superdream, which saw the Massachusetts-born artist taking on the roles of singer/songwriter for the first time, while blending indie, electronic and disco influences. Stell supported Superdream with extensive touring across the US, European Union and UK while helping to establish his reputation as an innovative and boundary-pushing artist. 

His sophomore Big Wild album, 2022’s The Efferusphere saw Stell continuing to explore and push the boundaries of genre and emotion. 

The past few months have been busy for Stell: Earlier this year, he released -the first bit of new material since The Efferusphere — “Love Any Longer,” “You Belong Here,” and “The Universe” feat. feat. iDA HAWK,  a sprawling dance music track that mischievously nods at James Bond-thriller-like soundtracks, cinematic psych soul and British Big Beat fueled by an infectious optimism. All three of those previously released songs will appear on Stell’s highly-anticipated sophomore album, Wild Child. Slated for an August 29, 2025 release through Giant Music, Wild Child is reportedly one of Stell’s most dynamic and personal albums to date. After The Efferusphere, Stell found himself craving the curiosity and joy that initially drew him to music. 

That search let him to reconnect with his inner a child — a creative alter ego that he has dubbed Wild Child. The album’s material reportedly sees Stell creating a richer sonic palette that draws from and meshes elements of indie pop, psych rock and ’60s music. And throughout the album, Stell embraces the kind of playful and mischievous unpredictability informed from creating without constraints. 

Primarily written and produced by Stell alongside a close-knit cast of talented collaborators, Wild Child‘s material explores themes of renewal, resilience and connection to the Earth that simultaneously echo throughout the lyrics and sonic textures while striking a balance between childlike wonder and the hard-fought wisdom of maturity. “Wild Child runs throughout the album and is fighting to stay alive and thriving despite the things the world throws at us,” Stell says. “The album’s about exploring that side of ourselves that we don’t explore much as we age. I think we’re often pushed to repress that part of ourselves when we get older, because it’s deemed silly or irresponsible, but I’ve realized that maturity is about balancing both aspects of ourselves.” 

Wild Child‘s latest single “Too Loud” feat. Phantogram is a slinky, dance floor friendly bop that showcases Stell’s unerring knack for crafting incredibly catchy hooks. Anchored around the same playful and upbeat sensibility of its immediate predecessors, “Too Loud” feat. Phantogram may arguably be the most 80s sounding track of the album to date, managing to channel Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me,” and the like. 

“I first made the demo while I was making The Efferusphere. I can’t really pinpoint inspiration besides following what excites me,” Stell says. ” I try to trust that feeling and not overthink it. As simple as the demo sounded, there was something that consistently grabbed me when I listened back. It was sexy and ethereal. I was hung up on the second verse and the lyrics until I was connected with Sarah from Phantogram. Her voice was perfect and was the last big piece to the puzzle. She smashed it and my team and I were so stoked to work with her. I remember the head of the label, Nate Albert, telling me the song needed to be finished in a week to make it to vinyl. It’s such a cliche when finishing an album, but this truly was one of those songs submitted in the final hour in a mad hellish dash.” 

Stell continues, “Sarah’s voice was meant for this track, she really occupied the imaginary space of the track,Her tone and attitude was the perfect compliment [sic] to the production. Sexy and ethereal. I’m really excited for the day when we can play this one together on stage.”

“This song makes me want to roll the windows down and turn the volume all the way up,” Phantogram’s Sarah Berthel says. “Working with Jackson has been such a blast and we can’t wait to dance with you to this soon.”

Directed by Hunter Moreno, the accompanying video for “Too Wild” features Stell and Phantogram’s Sarah Barthel driving through a psychedelic racing through a psychedelic, anime-like night time scene.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Big Wild Teams Up with Phantogram on Slinky, Dance Floor Friendly “Too Loud”

Jackson Stell is a rising producer and artist, who initially started his career in his native Massachusetts as hip-hop producer, known as J Beatz. Following a life-altering trip to Big Sur, Stell switched creative lanes, adopting influences from the area’s natural beauty and open spaces. As Big Wild, the Massachusetts-based artist refines alt/indie electronic music by blending organic elements, lush soundscapes with bold, genre-defying creativity and panache. 

Stell’s breakthrough was back in 2015 when he toured with acclaimed electronic outfit Odesza and remixed “Say My Name.” That year also saw the release of “Aftergold,” feat. Tove Stryke, which stopped the Spotify Global Viral charts. 

Building upon a rapidly growing profile, Stell followed up with 2017’s Invincible EP and his full-length debut, 2019’s Superdream, which saw the Massachusetts-born artist taking on the roles of singer/songwriter for the first time, while blending indie, electronic and disco influences. Stell supported Superdream with extensive touring across the US, European Union and UK while helping to establish his reputation as an innovative and boundary-pushing artist. 

His sophomore Big Wild album, 2022’s The Efferusphere saw Stell continuing to explore and push the boundaries of genre and emotion. 

The past few months have been busy for Stell: Earlier this year, he released -the first bit of new material since The Efferusphere — “Love Any Longer,” “You Belong Here,” and “The Universe” feat. feat. iDA HAWK,  a sprawling dance music track that mischievously nods at James Bond-thriller-like soundtracks, cinematic psych soul and British Big Beat fueled by an infectious optimism. All three of those previously released songs will appear on Stell’s highly-anticipated sophomore album, Wild Child. Slated for an August 29, 2025 release through Giant Music, Wild Child is reportedly one of Stell’s most dynamic and personal albums to date. After The Efferusphere, Stell found himself craving the curiosity and joy that initially drew him to music.

That search let him to reconnect with his inner a child — a creative alter ego that he has dubbed Wild Child. The album’s material reportedly sees Stell creating a richer sonic palette that draws from and meshes elements of indie pop, psych rock and ’60s music. And throughout the album, Stell embraces the kind of playful and mischievous unpredictability informed from creating without constraints.

Primarily written and produced by Stell alongside a close-knit cast of talented collaborators, Wild Child‘s material explores themes of renewal, resilience and connection to the Earth that simultaneously echo throughout the lyrics and sonic textures while striking a balance between childlike wonder and the hard-fought wisdom of maturity. “Wild Child runs throughout the album and is fighting to stay alive and thriving despite the things the world throws at us,” Stell says. “The album’s about exploring that side of ourselves that we don’t explore much as we age. I think we’re often pushed to repress that part of ourselves when we get older, because it’s deemed silly or irresponsible, but I’ve realized that maturity is about balancing both aspects of ourselves.” 

Wild Child‘s latest single “Too Loud” feat. Phantogram is a slinky, dance floor friendly bop that showcases Stell’s unerring knack for crafting incredibly catchy hooks. Anchored around the same playful and upbeat sensibility of its immediate predecessors, “Too Loud” feat. Phantogram may arguably be the most 80s sounding track of the album to date, managing to channel Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me,” and the like.

“I first made the demo while I was making The Efferusphere. I can’t really pinpoint inspiration besides following what excites me,” Stell says. ” I try to trust that feeling and not overthink it. As simple as the demo sounded, there was something that consistently grabbed me when I listened back. It was sexy and ethereal. I was hung up on the second verse and the lyrics until I was connected with Sarah from Phantogram. Her voice was perfect and was the last big piece to the puzzle. She smashed it and my team and I were so stoked to work with her. I remember the head of the label, Nate Albert, telling me the song needed to be finished in a week to make it to vinyl. It’s such a cliche when finishing an album, but this truly was one of those songs submitted in the final hour in a mad hellish dash.” 

Stell continues, “Sarah’s voice was meant for this track, she really occupied the imaginary space of the track,Her tone and attitude was the perfect compliment [sic] to the production. Sexy and ethereal. I’m really excited for the day when we can play this one together on stage.”

“This song makes me want to roll the windows down and turn the volume all the way up,” Phantogram’s Sarah Berthel says. “Working with Jackson has been such a blast and we can’t wait to dance with you to this soon.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sierra Spirit Shares Anthemic “American Pie”

Sierra Spirit Kihega is Tulsa-born, Connecticut-based Native American singer/songwriter, musician and creative mastermind behind the rapidly rising solo recording project Sierra Spirit. Storytelling is in Kihega’s blood. Growing up as a member of the Otoe-Missouria tribe and the Keetoowah Band of Cherokees, she spent afternoons and weekends driving around with her grandmother and visiting family on the reservation. With a black coffee in one hand and the steering wheel in the other, Kihega’s grandmother imparted life lessons through ancestral stories. “A central part of our culture is storytelling, and my grandmother turned everything into a beautiful story, big or small,” Kihega says. “I wouldn’t be the writer I am today if it weren’t for listening to her.”

Though she now currently resides in Connecticut, her music dwells with the red dirt of Oklahoma, where she was raised. “I’d always been a writer, but I started writing songs when I became very homesick,” she says. She missed long drives across flat stretches of arid landscape, the “insane sunsets,” and the proximity to family and community.

When she began sharing music online, she quickly found a community of fans, many of whom are fellow Indigenous creatives, who found kinship and understanding in the stories Kihega told. “There are things I need to heal from and it’s important to share, because I want other people who have experienced similar things to feel less alone,” she says. Before she signed to Giant Music, she had already earned both a growing fanbase and a critical acclaimed with the self-release of her first two singles “ghost” and “televangelic,” both of which appear on her debut EP. Those songs caught the attention of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, who awarded her a BMI Abe Olman Scholarship, which is given in the interest of encouraging and supporting the careers of young songwriters. 

Kihega’s debut EP coin toss was released late last year. With the EP, the Oklahoman-born artist renders a self-portrait in intimate detail, touching on themes of loss, addiction and mental illness. Inspired by artists like Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers, Spirit’s lyrics are frank vignettes. Although the collection of songs are deeply personal, she stressed that the struggles she and her family have faced aren’t uncommon in Native communities. 

“As a kid, I didn’t see an Indigenous experience reflected back at me in the media. Native people were always these outdated constructs in westerns,” Spirit says. “I want to be a voice for my community, amplifying that we’re still here. The culture is moving.”  

Kihega writes to memorialize people and experiences, but she also writes to overcome a history of mental illness. As a child, she was quiet and reserved, which made her fear she came across as unapproachable. “I had such intense anxiety that I spent my younger years keeping to myself out of fear of being misunderstood,” she says. Years have passed since, but Spirit still fixates on those lonely formative years when she felt like a self-described “pushover” and “kicked puppy” around her peers.

Last year, I wrote about EP single “bleed you,” a remarkably catchy tune that brought  Soccer Mommy and others to mind featuring bursts of banjo and slide guitar, which nod to the country music she grew up with. And at its core is a nostalgic portrait of the Oklahoma of her youth, and of a dangerously obsessive, heartsick kind of love.

Kihega begins 2025 with her latest single “American Pie.” The new single sees the rising and acclaimed artist, leaning into her rootsier/Americana/country side while still being decidedly pop orientated with an arrangement that features driving percussion, violin, plucked guitar and enormous, rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses.

“‘American Pie’ is a reflection on the American dream and the uncertainty of this point in time,” the rising Tulsa-born, Connecticut-based artist explains. “We all want our own little slice of it but we take what we can get and we take it as it is.”

Directed by Pierce Pyrzenski, the accompanying video for “American Pie” employs a video within a video motif, in which we see the filming of the video and some of the behind the scenes, suggesting that the dream isn’t necessarily the reality.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sierra Spirit Shares Yearning and Wistful “bleed you”

Sierra Spirit Kihega is Tulsa-born, Connecticut-based Native American singer/songwriter, musician and creative mastermind behind the rising solo recording project Sierra Spirit. Storytelling is in Kihega’s blood. Growing up as a member of the Otoe-Missouria tribe and the Keetoowah Band of Cherokees, she spent afternoons and weekends driving around with her grandmother and visiting family on the reservation. With a black coffee in one hand and the steering wheel in the other, Kihega’s grandmother imparted life lessons through ancestral stories. “A central part of our culture is storytelling, and my grandmother turned everything into a beautiful story, big or small,” Kihega says. “I wouldn’t be the writer I am today if it weren’t for listening to her.”

Though she now currently resides in Connecticut, her music dwells with the red dirt of Oklahoma, where she was raised. “I’d always been a writer, but I started writing songs when I became very homesick,” she says. She missed long drives across flat stretches of arid landscape, the “insane sunsets,” and the proximity to family and community.

When she began sharing music online, she quickly found a community of fans, many of whom are fellow Indigenous creatives, who found kinship and understanding in the stories Kihega told. “There are things I need to heal from and it’s important to share, because I want other people who have experienced similar things to feel less alone,” she says. Before she signed to Giant Music, she had already earned both a growing fanbase and a critical acclaimed with the self-release of her first two singles “ghost” and “televangelic,” both of which appear on her debut EP. Those songs caught the attention of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, who recently awarded her a BMI Abe Olman Scholarship, which is given in the interest of encouraging and supporting the careers of young songwriters.

Kihega’s highly-anticipated debut EP coin toss is slated for an October 10, 2024 release through Giant Music. With coin toss, the Oklahoman-born artist renders a self-portrait in intimate detail, touching on themes of loss, addiction and mental illness. Inspired by artists like Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers, Spirit’s lyrics are frank vignettes. Although the collection of songs are personal, she stresses that the struggles she and her family have faced aren’t uncommon in Native communities.

“As a kid, I didn’t see an Indigenous experience reflected back at me in the media. Native people were always these outdated constructs in westerns,” Spirit says. “I want to be a voice for my community, amplifying that we’re still here. The culture is moving.” 

Kihega writes to memorialize people and experiences, but she also writes to overcome a history of mental illness. As a child, she was quiet and reserved, which made her fear she came across as unapproachable. “I had such intense anxiety that I spent my younger years keeping to myself out of fear of being misunderstood,” she says. Years have passed since, but Spirit still fixates on those lonely formative years when she felt like a self-described “pushover” and “kicked puppy” around her peers.

Earlier this summer, Kihega shared EP single “i’ll be waiting (pug),” which Flood called “a gentle and heartfelt appreciation for her late grandmother on the Cherokee side of her family, who went by the song’s parenthetical nickname.” The song draws on the Johnny Cash and country music she grew up listening to, while detailing the painful loss of her beloved grandmother, when Spirit was a teenager.

Featuring bursts of banjo and slide guitar, which nod to the country music she grew up with, the EP’s latest single “bleed you” is remarkably catchy tune that seems to bring Soccer Mommy and others to mind. But at its core is a nostalgic portrait of the Oklahoma of her youth and of a dangerously obsessive, heartsick kind of love.

“Have you ever loved someone to the point that it scares you?” Spirit shares. “You take the worst parts of them into account in an effort to make that feeling go away. But the harder you try the closer, the stronger you’re pulled in. This love grows to near obsession to the point that you want to consume their mind, body, and soul. You want in their skin and in their head. Nothing is close enough and no amount of their attention is good enough – you’ll always want more.” 

Directed by Pierce Pyrzenski, captures Spirit as one-half of a pair of star-crossed lovers on the beach at golden hour and sunset, full of youthful yearning and optimism. Though clearly, not shot in Oklahoma, there are nods to her teenage years, when kids would drive around, hang out, chat and dream big.