Tag: singer/songwriter \

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Monophonics’ Kelly Finnigan Shares Gorgeous Acoustic Version of “Impressions Of You”

Kelly Finnigan is an acclaimed singer/songwriter, keyboardist and producer. Perhaps best known as the frontman of the equally acclaimed West Coast-based JOVM mainstays Monophonics, an act that continues the sonic and production traditions of early Motown Records, Stax Records, Muscle Shoals, Daptone Records and Dunham Records. Finnigan has also stepped out in the spotlight as a solo artist, releasing two albums — 2019’s full-length debut, The Tales People Tell and 2020’s Christmas album, A Joyful Sound.

Interestingly, The Tales People Tell track “Impressions Of You” has been embraced by the West Coast lowrider scene. But for Valentine’s Day, Finnigan shares an acoustic version of “Impressions Of You” that turns the song into a lush, soulful piano-driven ballad centered around Finnigan’s soulful delivery.

The stripped down approach helps the listener focus on what may arguably be one of Finnigan’s most earnest, heart-worn-proudly-on-sleeve long songs. Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you lovers out there.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 73rd Birthday, Peter Gabriel!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Peter Gabriel’s 73rd birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Singapore-born, Sydney-based St. Humain Shares Funky, Self-Deprecating Bop

Rising Singapore-born, Sydney-based singer/songwriter, producer and self-described “genre-agnostic” artist St. Humain creates music informed by his multicultural upbringing and life: Starting out songwriting while in his teens back in his native Singapore, he moved to Sydney, where he learned production.

After encouragement from music industry friends, St. Humain released his debut single, 2017’s “Make a Move,” which caught the attention of the Capitol Music Group in Los Angeles. Capitol Music Group signed him and re-released the single through their Listen For Pleasure imprint. The Singapore-born, Sydney-based artist released his debut EP Emotional Sauna back in 2019. And just as things were starting to get exciting, the pandemic struck and threw a monkey wrench in his — and everyone else’s plans and hopes.

St. Humain’s work has amassed over a million streams to date while receiving praise from Billboard, Live Nation’s One to Watch, Earmilk and a lengthy list of others. He has also had singles land on Spotify’s New Music Friday and Fresh Finds playlists, Apple Music’s Best of the Week playlist and Amazon Music’s Brand New Music Playlist.

In 2021, “Sick Sad Love Song” landed on Spotify’s new music playlists all across Asia. He continued to write new music, including the material, which will appear on his sophomore EP Metadramatic. Metadramatic sees the rising Singapore-born, Sydney-based artist boldly pushing his sound towards the intersection of pop, electronic music and R&B paired with introspective, self-analytic lyrics drawing from his own life.

Metadramatic‘s latest single “Wanna Talk” is a radio friendly bop centered around a razor sharp, rousingly anthemic hook, an irresistible, funky groove, twinkling synths paired with the Singapore-born, Sydney-based artist’s plaintive yet soulful falsetto. But underneath the slick production and tight grooves is a satirical, self-deprecating song that features a narrator, who recognizes that they’re awkward and have a difficult time even chatting up a love interest but ironically, they feel comfortable pouring their heart out to thousands of strangers — on stage. The universal thread at the core of the song is something familiar to all of us: love can make even the most confident of us feel a foolishly crippling self-doubt.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Black History Month: Louis Armstrong

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month — and pays tribute to Louis Armstrong.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Nicholas Allbrook Shares Shimmering “Jackie”

Nicholas Allbrook is an acclaimed Western Australian-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist. painter and producer. Since starting his artistic career, Allbrook has brought community and collaboration to the forefront of his artistic and creative method — both as a solo artist and with POND. Allbrook has also collaborated with Aussie and international acts alike. including King Krule, Cate Le Bon, Cuco and Holy Fuck among others.

Through his career, Allbrook has shown a deep understanding of the human experience and the importance of art in modern society. His fourth solo album, the Allbrook and Nathaniel Hoho (a.k.a. HOKO) co-produced Manganese is slated for a July 9, 2023 release through Spinning Top Music . The album reportedly is a psyche pop wonderland that captures the sound of a musician with a symphony in his back pocket, a thorough history of 80s Oz-rock in his rearview mirror and modern Australia in his sights.

“Jackie,” Manganese‘s latest single is a mid-tempo, swooning ballad centered around twinkling synths, strummed guitar, a sinuous bass line and a rousingly anthemic hook paired with Allbrook’s plaintive vocal. Seemingly indebted to 80s pop, “Jackie” is a bittersweet song that grapples with loss, grief and hope for peace in the afterlife — or whatever is beyond this.

“This song is about my friend (whose name isn’t Jackie) who died in 2021,” Allbrook explains. “She was fantastic and the news left me with familiar feelings of guilt and regret and ‘why didn’t I do more or know better?’ I don’t usually get hit with creative bolts while running, but by the canal once in London I was struck with the hopeful image of her rowing away from the earth that had been so hurtful and hard, on a black lake surrounded by stars, finally finding peace and silence. It felt nice to think about death like that, bathed in pale silver light rather than just cold. I got lots of instrumental help from Nathaniel Hoho, who bizarrely and brilliantly put in the nature documentary voice about the giant panda which should never work but somehow does.”

Directed by Alex Haygarth, the accompanying video for “Jackie” is split between Allbrook in full Thin White Duke mode, playing acoustic guitar while bathed in spotlight with flecks of starlight around him. We also see drag performance artist Ash Baroque expressively dancing and lip synching to the song, making the video seem as though it’s a duet between two dear friends — one just departed, one still here in the mortal coil.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Black History Month/Happy 78th Birthday, Bob Marley!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month and the 78th anniversary of Bob Marley’s birth.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Black History Month: Curtis Mayfield

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month — and pays tribute to the legendary and incomparable Curtis Mayfield.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: La Faute Shares Haunting “Blue Girl Nice Day”

Peggy Messing is a Winnipeg-born, Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter and visual artist, best known for her solo recording project La Faute. The Winnipeg-born, Toronto-based artist’s work sees her exploring several different themes including surface vs. depth, longing, betrayal, mourning and desire.

Creating her sound with tenor eclectic guitar and obsolete hardware samplers, Messing released her debut EP just before the pandemic put a halt on everything. She chose to pause live performing due to her health, and returned to focusing on creating music, finding workarounds to the problem of isolation. She connected with fellow artists and producers in France, the UK, Canada and the States — and most recently, Los Angeles-based producer, Topher Mohr, who produced her forthcoming La Faute self-titled debut album.

“Blue Girl Nice Day,” the self-titled album’s atmospheric first single features strummed acoustic guitar, twinkling keys, Messing’s gorgeous and expressive vocal paired with swirling synths and military-influenced drumming. Sonically, “Blue Girl Nice Day” is blends classic, guitar-driven folk with shoegazer-like textures.

Messing explains that “Blue Girl Nice Day” was inspired by the Milgram Experiments of the 60s. Subjects were told to give ever-increasing series of electric shocks to a “learner,” who had to repeat word pairs” Blue/Girl, Nice/Day, Slow/Dance, Sweet/Taste, and so on. In the experiment, the “learner” was an actor, who purposely made mistakes. The subject had to decide if they should obey orders and potentially give a lethal electric shock to a person, who was crying out in the next room — or to refuse. Subjects were shaken to find that most people would obey the authority figure and give what they thought were lethal shocks to the learner, even against their own conscience.”The song reflects on how easily we can betray and hurt each other, and how we don’t necessary know ourselves and what we are capable of,” the Canadian artist says.

The accompanying video follows Messing outside in a field near power lines and on a hospital bed with a cold wind blowing around her. It’s hauntingly eerie.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Black History Month: Chaka Khan

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month — and pays tribute to Chaka Khan.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Mariaa Siga Shares Uplifting “Le murmure des anges”

Mariaa Siga (born Mariama Siga Goudiaby) is a Senegalese singer/songwriter, musician, and JOVM mainstay, who can trace the bulk of the origins of her music career to winning a local talent show, where she caught the attention of acclaimed Senegalese act Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc’s frontperson mentored the young Goudiaby, helping her refine her style and further develop her musical skills. Shortly after, Gouldiaby landed a role in Mon Réve, a film which aired on RDV. 

As a singer/songwriter and musician, the Senegalese JOVM mainstay was long accustomed to the traditional rhythms of the Casamance region of Southern Senegal; but her curiosity led to her to discover and experiment with Western styles like reggae, blues and jazz, which she freely incorporates into her own work.

Back in 2016, Goudiaby was was one of the winners of the Festival des Vielles Pirogues‘ Tremplin competition. Building upon that momentum, she released two singles the following year, “Ya sama none” and “Asekaw.”

The Senegalese JOVM mainstay performed in her native Casamance for the first time with a set at 2018’s Kayissen Festival. That same year, Yoro Ndiyae featured Goudiaby on his Sunu Folk compilation. She capped that year off with a French tour that November.

Her full-length debut Askew, which translates to “Woman” in her native Diola, was released back in 2019. That year, she won Baco Records‘ One Riddim Contest, which led to sets at Morocco’s Festival MarcoFoiles, France’s Midem Festival and to an invite to play Quebec’s Festival Mondial des Femmes d’Ici et d’Ailleurs. 

The JOVM mainstay begins 2023 with “Le murmure des anges.” The song features a shuffling and buoyant reggae riddim from Artikal Band, complete with a slow-burning and soulful guitar solo paired with Siga’s gorgeous and expressive delivery. “Le murmure des angels” is a song that does two things — give thanks to the enteral while reminding listeners that they should listen to the little voice inside of us, which arms us with much-needed confidence; that voice that frequently says “You know, you got this. You know you’re dope.”

Directed by Mao Sidibé, the gorgeously shot, accompanying video captures snippets of everyday Senegalese life, following a small collection of hard-working folks, trying to survive with their dignity intact. When the video’s protagonist, stumbles upon a suitcase of money that falls out of car, he’s tempted to keep the money — who wouldn’t? — but he does the right thing and winds up being rewarded.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Black History: Aretha Franklin

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month and pays tribute to Aretha Franklin.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: WILSN Performs “Every Day and Every Night” at The Meat Market

Shannon Busch is a rising Melbourne-based singer/songwriter, best known as WILSN. Her full-length debut album, Those Days Are Over was released today through Ivy League Records/Universal Music Australia. The album sees the rising Aussie artist crafting a fusion of modern soul, pop, jazz and classic Motown paired with earnest, lived-in lyrics that draw from the songwriter’s own life, her soulful delivery and production that’s simultaneously nostalgic and contemporary.

“Soul music never goes out of fashion because it’s pure,” the rising Aussie artist says
 “It’s all about a great melody, a great beat and harmony that moves you and makes you feel something. In today’s landscape of artists trying so hard to do something different often for the sake of being different, it’s nice to just engage with the human voice in an unadulterated way.”

So far album singles “Tell Me,” was featured on Spotify US’s Best Retro Songs of 2022 while “You Know Better” and “If You Wanna Love Me” received airplay from ABC, double j and triple j, and praise from the likes of NME, Under The Radar, Flood Magazine and a list of others. Album title track “Those Days Are Over” was the #1 most playlisted song by an Aussie artist last month. “Hurts So Bad,” a duet with The Teskey Brothers‘ frontman Josh Teskey was added to over 20 Spotify editorial playlists across the US, Europe and Australia — and the single was featured in KCRW’s 5 Songs to Hear This Week.

Along with the release of the album, the rising Aussie artist announced a headlining 10-date Australia tour, fresh off touring with Allen Stone. And to give fans in her homeland — and hopefully elsewhere — a taste of what to expect of her life show, Busch shares live footage of album single “Every Day and Every Night,” a classic Motown/classic Daptone-inspired single rooted in tight, infectious grooves and Busch’s soulful delivery.

If there’s one thing the footage at The Meat Market proves, it’s this: you’re looking at a superstar in the making.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy Black History Month: Janet Jackson

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month — and pays tribute to Janet Jackson.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: L.T. Leif Shares Lush “Gentle Moon”

L.T. Leif (they/them) is a Canadian-born singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, who has spent stints residing in the Canadian prairies, Finland, Iceland and the Pacific Northwest — and is an adopted member of the Scottish DIY music scene. Their life and work is rooted in the self-sufficient spirit of the Canadian prairies and is informed by their travels.

Leif first cut their teeth with Calgary-based orchestral pop outfit The Consonant C. Since the group’s split back in 2011, Leif has explored different configurations and approaches, including experimental noise collaborations with the Bug Incision crew, playing sold-out shows with punk-hearted OK JAZZ, drumming with slacker-rock bands Hex Ray and Hungry Freaks, playing synths with Astral Swanns’ Matt Swamn, and even singing in a witch choir, Hermitess. Leif’s admirers including K Records founder and label head Calvin Johnson — they toured together with The Believer Magazine.

As a solo artist, Leif has collaborated with a collection of friends, releasing 2016’s double album Shadow on the Brim/Rough Beasts and her first release on Lost Map Records, last year’s Lost Cat cassette compilation of live and unreleased tracks, Introducing L.T. Lief. Throughout each of those releases, Leif’s spirit is collaborative generative, experimental and kind. The band members and the parameters of the project are ever-evolving, but as Leif says of the overall project, “to the friendships and the moment, we are grateful and stay true.”

Leif’s recently released album Come Back To Me, But Lightly was demoed in a room on Glasgow‘s Great Western Road and made intercontinentally with contributions both remote and in-person from pals near and far. The album features lush and sensual songs about “the body, loss as a decision, and knowing your own desire as a radical act,” the Canadian artist says. “It has a lot of imagery and thought from the northern places I’ve been living, and takes inspiration from minimalist writers, painters, and thinkers. This album comes from a six-year long space of change, from a life I was living as someone afraid of my own brain and body, into someone a lot more openly unshiney. Painful and seeping. I think that distance and decisions and loss and conflict are all things that can birth you into a different kind of being.”

Come Back To Me, But Lightly‘s latest single “Gentle Moon,” is a lush and beguiling tune rooted in a gentle, kindly spirit paired with an arrangement featuring glistening pedal steel, twinkling keys, strummed guitar and Leif’s expressive vocals singing lyrics that make references to the cosmos, the human body and longing. The song feels warm, deeply-lived in and unabashedly earnest.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Alexa Dark’s Cinematic and Sultry “Villain”

Rising singer/songwriter, musician and pop artist Alexa Dark is a global citizen, who has spent time in Barcelona, Munich, London, NYC, and Los Angeles. Dark’s work draws from her multicultural, global upbringing and eclectic music taste, including Françoise Hardy, Portishead, Nancy Sinatra, Arctic Monkeys, and others. as well as her love of film noir and French New Wave cinema. While living in London, the rising singer/songwriter and musician began writing her own songs and poetry as a teenager, and eventually playing in and around town — both solo and accompanied with an acoustic guitar and in different bands. Those experiences helped her develop and hone her artistic direction, as well as her sound and presence.

Dark relocated to New York, where she quickly became part of the downtown live music scene and began working on recording new material with Matt Chiaravalle. Since singing with AWAL, the rising pop artist has busily released a batch of noir, alt-pop singles over the past couple of years that sounds as though it could be part of a 60s era Bond movie femme fatale soundtrack.

Adding to a growing profile, she has opened for Ghostly Kisses, NoSo, Julian LaMadrid, and a lengthy list of others, while receiving profiles from Apple Music’s New in Rock and New in Alternative playlists and coverage from Earmilk, She Shreds, Blackbook, and Story+Rain’s “Her Life is Her Art,” alongside Sydney Sweeney, Rainsford, and others.

Dark’s debut EP is slated for a March 3, 2023 release through AWAL. But in the meantime, the Barcelona-born, New York-based artist recently shared the EP’s latest single, “Villain.” Centered around twinkling piano, soaring strings, a simple backbeat paired with Dark’s expressive and sultry delivery, “Villain” sounds as though it were inspired by Poritshead, Tales of Us-era Goldfrapp, and 60s Bond movies. While continuing a remarkable run of brooding and cinematic material, the new single features a narrator, who describes the sensation of watching herself repeatedly self-sabotage. The narrator expresses a desire to be good, to do the right thing but feeling lured in the direction of being bad — and deep down enjoying it,

“‘Villain’ is realising you might be the villain of your own story,” Dark explains. “It’s accepting the shadowy parts of who you are, while hinting towards a darker, painful underlying origin story which makes the villain, the villain.”

She continues “. . . I wanted to explore the multifaceted nature of the ‘villain’ in me, and how my past obstacles, my fears of love and heartbreak, play in shaping this version of myself. I wanted this to be the lead song to my EP, as I think it captures the arc of the story I’m trying to tell throughout the seven songs – the darker side of femininity, how heartbreak and loss might shape us into being something other than ‘the hero’ in our story, and how most often times the battle between the good guy and the bad guy takes place inside of us, facing off ourselves.”