Tag: singer/songwriter \

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Mysterious, Danish electronic music artist Ani Even is a self-described “electro cave/rave/chantcore artist.” Late late year, Even shared “The Nearest Star,” a slow-burning yet euphoric ode to the Winter Solstice, centered around sampled layers of Benedictine monk-like chants, indigenous-like throat singing, Even’s plaintive vocals, thumping club friendly beats and glistening synths. The end result is a mind-bending mix of rave music, drum ‘n’ bass, shoegaze and spiritual music — that sounds as though it should be played at Stonehenge. 

Even’s latest single “Dogstar” derives its title from Sirius, a star in the constellation Canis Major, seen in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere. Sirius, also known as the Dog Star is the brightest star in the night sky. For those in Egypt, the rising of Sirius roughly correlates to the cyclical flooding of the Nile River, while the ancient Greeks, it marked “the dog days of summer,” the hottest part of the summer. For the Polynesians, who were mostly located in the Southern hemisphere, the rising of Sirius marked the beginning of winter — and the star was used as a guiding reference while navigating the Pacific Ocean.

Centered around layers of glistening synth arpeggios, a relentless motorik groove, skittering beats paired with heavily vocodered and distorted vocals and euphoric hooks, “Dogstar” manages to sound as though it pulls from elements of Giorgio Moroder-era disco, Kraftwerk-era techno, and Little Boots-era electro pop and meshes them into a seamless, crowd-pleasing fashion.

The Danish artist describes the song as “a journey from the melancholic to the joyous. The Sirius star (Canis Major) is sometimes reffered [sic] to as the Dogstar [sic]. A guiding light on the night’s sky, which helps you navigate through the darkness towards a brighter horizon. Follow your heart and you will find your destination.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Taleen Kali Returns with Shimmering “Tomorrow Girl”

Los Angeles-born and-based singer/songwriter, guitarist, poet, essayist, visual artist, Dum Dum Records founder, and JOVM mainstay Taleen Kali (she/they) has made a career out of crafting romantic punk songs that are simultaneously cosmic, dreamy and defiant, and informed by her Armenian heritage and her parents’ birthplaces of Lebanon and Ethiopia. But its all underpinned by Kali’s desire to seamlessly fuse her cultural heritage and identity with the sounds of the modern countercultures she grew up embracing and exploring as a musician and singer/songwriter.

Kali’s music career started with a stint in Los Angeles-based band TÜLIPS. After TÜLIPS closed up shop in 2016, she stepped out into the limelight as a solo artist, eventually touring across the US with Ex Hex, Alice Bag and Seth Bogart. 

The Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstay’s solo debut, 2018’s Kristin Kontrol-produced Soul Songs EP was recorded at Hollywood-based Sunset Sound Studios. The EP, which found Kali’s long-held riot grrl ethos maturing into a multifaceted punk sound and approach with elements of noise pop and New Wave was  released to praise from BUST Magazine and Stereogum, who likened her sound to a contemporary Blondie. Soul Songs was also included in Pitchfork‘s Guide to Summer Albums and LA Weekly‘s Best Indie Punk Albums. 

Kali along with her backing band followed up with an unplugged version of Soul Songs and covers of The Supremes‘ “Baby Love” and Garbage‘s “#1 Crush.” She also recorded a two-song pandemic project called Changing with her TÜLIPS-era producer Greg Katz.

Taleen Kali’s Jeff Schroeder and Josiah Mazzaschi-co-produced full-length debut Flower of Life is slated for a March 3, 2023 release through Kali’s Dum Dum Records. Sonically, the album reportedly sees the rising Los Angeles further cementing her fuzzy and noisy take on psych punk paired with vocals that run the range of femme punk and shoegaze siren. 

Over the past year or so, I’ve written about the following album singles:

  • Album title track “Flower of Life,” a grungy psych punk ripper centered around fuzzy power chords, thunderous drumming, soaring organ chords and Kali’s sneering delivery paired with mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses that sonically was a bit of a synthesis of My Bloody Valentine and riot grrl punk. “‘Flower of Life’ was a spiritual concept I held onto for a long time before writing this song,” Kali explains in press notes. “The flower is a fractal, a cycle, ever blooming, ever decaying. 

  • “Trash Talk“, a jangling Brit Pop-inspired anthem centered around a chugging motorik-like groove, fuzzy power chords, Kali’s unerring knack for rousingly anthemic hooks and a sneering “fuck off” attitude towards haters, trolls and toxic bullshit that almost anyone can relate to. “‘Trash Talk’ is a track that speaks out against haters, trolls, and toxic bullshit in the hope that it gives a voice to anybody who’s been silenced or worn down,” Kali explains. “I wanted to write a song that embodies my favorite jangly Brit-pop songs and the energy of ‘do no harm, but take no shit.’”

  • “Fine Line,” a Too True-era Dum Dum Girls-like confection centered around shimmering and reverb-drenched guitars, a forceful and driving rhythm section paired with Kali’s plaintive delivery and her unerring knack for well, placed, rousingly anthemic hooks. “‘Fine Line’ kicks off side B of the record. I wanted tTo explore the ways we feel marked by love and pain. How much of an impact the smallest of impressions can make. And how they can feel when they fade,” the JOVM mainstay explains. “I wrote this song in the summer of 2018 right when the last album Soul Songs was coming out. The process of putting out my first solo record was so strange and cathartic that a handful of new songs just came spilling out during that time, and this was the first one. I really wanted there to be a demarcation for side B of Flower of Life so ‘Fine Line’ is written in a minor key, setting the tone for the 2nd half of the album.”

Flower of Life‘s fifth and latest single “Tomorrow Girl” continues in a similar vein as its immediate predecessor with the song being a shimmering Too True-era Dum Dum Girls-meets shoegaze-like pop confection featuring shimmering and reverb-drenched guitars, Kali’s gorgeous and achingly plaintive delivery paired with a driving rhythm section and enormous hooks. Much like its predecessors, “Tomorrow Girl” is rooted in personal, lived-in experience and hard-won wisdom.

“‘Tomorrow Girl’ is about finding your future self when the present isn’t cutting it. I wrote this song when I desperately wanted change. Sometimes when we want change we seek the wrong kind of love, we take drastic measures, we make dumb mistakes,” Kali explains. “This song is my dumb mistake. There are so many punk songs titled ‘____ Girl’ and I wanted to write a song in that tradition from a female POV. So, it’s a song about a girl, but we don’t know if the subject of the song is a love interest or if it’s the narrator having an inner conflict, which I wanted to leave purposefully vague; an inherently queer song.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Liela Moss Shares Incisive and Propulsive “Come and Find Me”

Over the course of her 20 year music career, British singer/songwriter and musician Liela Moss has been very busy: She’s a co-founder of The Duke Spirit, whose output has ranged from brawling alt-rock and cinematic ventures. Moss with her The Duke Spirit bandmate Toby Butler are members of synth-rock project Roman Remains. And she has collaborated with the likes of UNKLE, Nick Cave, Giorgio Moroder, The Heritage Orchestra, and Lost Horizons among a list of others. Moss has also served as a muse for iconic designers Alexander McQueen and Philip Lim.

With the release of 2018’s My Name Is Safe In Your Mouth, Moss stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist. 2020’s Who the Power was a dramatic, synth-driven effort. Moss’ third album Internal Working Model is slated for a January 13, 2023 release through Bella Union. Internal Working Model reportedly bristles with frustration at our disconnected culture but also — crucial — burns with a desire to reconnect: “I’m trying to find a way to plug myself into a new community,” says Liela Moss of her third solo album. “I am imagining a tribe, navigating away from our very centralized culture, dismantling it and revising the way I think things work.” “We see the beneficiaries of the status quo suppress realness and wellbeing by selling you a banal alternative that upholds their agenda. I want to add to the firepower to burn that old house down,” Moss explains.

Internal Working Model’s creation evolved organically between Moss and partner/collaborator Toby Butler, who divided their time between work and parenting to make the album. Moss compares the process to a “slow game of cards,” the duo revealing their hands in a playful spirit. The “third brain in the room,” says Moss, was the modular synth: “You tweak it and it changes the energy. There’s nothing new in that technology, but in terms of the way we’ve worked for years, working with an anonymous synth brain was a new kind of freedom.” 

Thematically, the album is in part an album about selfhood and certainties made unsettled in today’s dystopian theater, somewhat by the pandemic but also as Moss says by the “self-seeking, self-protecting culture” of global economics, where we have forgotten that “competition is just a construct, co-operation is actually the natural way of being . . . Lyrically, I’m laughing and yelling at surveillance capitalism, I’m throwing down sentences that reach out to simply feel good on good terrain, to feel safe on planet earth. There is turbulence, but an understanding that the urge to restructure is growing; human goodness cannot truly be suppressed.” The album is also rooted in Moss’ interest in attachment theory, the idea that the ways we are cared for (or not) in childhood, forge the neurological pathways that build esteem, that shape us — and perhaps the entire world. . “I started to think about the nefarious characters in globalist culture who have such a hold on what’s going on in terms of big pharma, big tech and big political everything. I was thinking, my God, these manipulative people started life needing to be attended to properly and probably were not! All this desperate greed and corruption winds back to maladapted individuals! Then I began seeing them as tiny, neglected humans with an unhealthy attachment cycle.” 

Sonically, the material features Moss’ expressive voice leading the way over fractious synth backgrounds to create something that’s tense yet tender, timeless yet timely; determined to plug into positivity wherever — and whenever — it can be found. “It’s like a carnival of good will,” says Moss, “we see the pretense, the masquerade. Then the realness, the love. That’s why the word ‘empathy’ comes up so much and rolls around amongst the most menacing synths. It cannot be kept down, no matter the weight.” 

In comparison to its immediate predecessor, Moss says that she . . “wanted a more vigorous pulse, I wanted more movement. I wanted to feel friction and for things to feel emotionally disruptive this time around.”

Centered around Moss’ plaintive and yearning delivery paired with glistening synths arpeggios, skittering beats and a relentless motorik-like groove, Internal Working Model‘s latest single “Come And Find Me” is simultaneously sultry, forceful and menacing in a way that brings Peter Gabriel‘s Security to my mind. But the song is rooted in Moss’ incisive sociopolitical commentary and thinking. “The idea running throughout this track is that co-operation is natural, and competition is a construct,” Moss explains. “I’m trying to be the bigger man, always seeing . . .Using empathy as the guide, we could neutralize the bad guys. My favorite lines are these: ‘This should be embodied dream space, should be free space, should be fair. That’s all’. I mean, that is all, right?! It’s such a rhythmic track, and the synth arpeggios layer up in a way that adds electricity and force to the ideas in the song; resistance against obstacles to fairness.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: King Canyon, A Supergroup Featuring Eric Krasno Shares Soulful Track with Son Little

King Canyon is a new supergroup featuring:

  • Eric Krasno, a a two-time Grammy winning, guitarist, producer and JOVM mainstay, best known for his work with Soulive, Lettuce, and Pretty Lights. Krasno has received seven Grammy nominations in the following categories: Best Blues Album, Best Contemporary Blues, Best R&B and Best Electronic Album.

  • Otis McDonald, a producer and multi-instrumentalist, best known for a large catalog that continues to be used in millions of videos across the Internet.

  • Mike Chiavaro, a Brooklyn-based electric and upright bassist, who has played with Richard Marx, Boy & Bear, and a lengthy list of others.

The trio can trace their collaboration back to April 2020: Krasno came across McDonalds music on Instagram and immediately became a fan. Months later, McDonald who had been woking on material with his longtime friend Chiavaro, enlisted Krasno to add some of his guitar to the mix. And before they knew it, the trio had an album’s worth of material rooted in classic R&B, funk and soul-tinged grooves, nostalgia, and a newfound friendship based in their mutual love for music.

For the creative process and the feel captured on the album are unlike any other project that these artists have been involved with previously. With each musician in a different location — Krasno in Los Angeles, McDonald in San Francisco and Chiavaro in Brooklyn — the band wrote and recorded material remotely while becoming arguably the highest band who never played a gig. “It was easy and fun. Exactly what it should be,” King Canyon’s Otis McDonald says. “It didn’t take long before we had a couple of albums’ worth of songs. Some tracks feature special guests and others showcase the power trio format. King Canyon is fresh and rooted in nostalgia.”

The trio’s self-titled, full-length debut is slated for a January 13, 2023 release through Mixto Records. The album will feature the trio collaborating with an impressive and eclectic array of guests including Tedeschi Trucks Band‘s Derek Trucks and Son Little. The trio have released two singles “Keep on Moving” and “Mulholland” that have received praise from the likes of Khraungbin, John Mayer, Black Pumas‘ Adrian Quesada, Live for Live Music, Jambands.com, and Relix.

The self-titled full-length debut album’s third and latest single “Ice & Fire” is an old-school soul and R&B-inspired strut centered around twinkling keys, an irresistible, funky groove and swinging, J. Dilla-inspired drumming paired with Son Little’s soulful yet plaintive vocal. Sonically, “Ice & Fire” brings a mix of JOVM mainstays Black Pumas and classic soul to mind — thanks to a dusty, old-timey feel with subtly modern production flourishes, and earnest performances.

“Son Little and I met a few years back at a festival. We had a lot of mutual respect for each other’s music and decided to start writing together,” Eric Krasno explains. “We instantly became tight as friends and frequent collaborators. Ice & Fire is a perfect mixture of the sounds of Son Little & King Canyon. Son’s lyrical imagery blends with the KC’s soundscape creating a unique and soulful sound.“

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 63rd Birthday, Michael Stipe!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Michael Stipe’s 63rd birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Denver’s Jordan Lucas Shares a Hook-Driven Bop

Jordan Lucas is a Georgia-born, Denver-based singer/songwriter and musician . Lucas can trace the origins of his music career to high school, when he discovered both the guitar — and the guitar heroes. Once he was obsessed with guitar, Lucas started to discover all the things the instrument could do and the pedal effects, endless possibilities opened up for him.

Lucas began to brach out to different styles, genres and instruments, and began to realize that it isn’t necessary to hew your sound and approach to what’s heard on the radio — or even deemed popular. During what was an eye-opening stage of his life and career, the Georgia-born, Denver-based supported other acts, joined bands and did studio work. Moving around a bit, he started a band with a few friends called My Instant Lunch, in which he played guitar and contributed backing vocals and some songwriting. His experience with My Instant Lunch helped to lay the foundation of his own songwriting.

Once My Instant Lunch split, Lucas relocated to Denver, where he started to build a life, while establishing himself as a songwriter and musician. And while he loved working and writing with other artists, he wanted to focus on his own work. In 2020, he began focusing on his own work as a solo artist. Back in 2020, Lucas started working on his full-length debut, Serious Musician, which touches upon his professional journey, his mental health, life experiences and hopes for the future while evoking the outward expression of all the different musical influences and experiences over the years.

Centered around shimmering guitars, glistening keys and a propulsive backbeat paired with Lucas’ plaintive vocals and a rousingly anthemic hook”Wake Up,” Serious Musician‘s first single brings Danish JOVM mainstays Palace Winter to mind — with the song being rooted in deliberate attention to craft.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

David Quinn, best known DWQ is an emerging Dublin-based singer/songwriter, musician and producer, who specializes in melodic indie rock and electronic music rooted in soulful vocals, thoughtful lyrics and catchy riffs. His latest single “Requiem Dance” sees the emerging Dublin artist pairing a soulful reverb-drenched vocal delivery, that brings Michael Hutchence and Tears for Fears to mind with a 90s Brit pop-like arrangement centered around funky guitars and enormous hooks.

’This song is a message from the grave to loved ones. I have always been struck by the mix of emotions at funerals, there is always a sadness yes, but there can be an immense joy and solemn celebration when reflecting the life of someone close to you and the relationship you had with them,” Quinn explains. “I wanted this song to be a call to celebration’ and not mourning’. It’s far from a sad song, it’s very positive and full of melodies, lyrics, overlapping rhythms and sounds that keep the listener engaged right to the end.”

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 76th birthday, Patti Smith!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Patti Smith’s 76th birthday.

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

Gray Days is the (mostly) solo recording project of a rather mysterious Aussie singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who writes and records all the parts of his music — with the exception of drums and tricky lead guitar parts. He makes his music in his garage and then takes it to a friend’s studio, where that friend engineers and mixes the material. 

The Aussie singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist released his full-length debut Drifting earlier this year. The album featured three single that I managed to write about over the course of the year:

  • Going Nowhere,” an anthemic Brit Pop-inspired song that revealed a songwriter with a deliberate attention to craftsmanship and an uncanny knack for a big, catchy hook. 
  • “Transcend,” a dreamy 120 Minutes MTV-like track centered around shimmering and twangy guitars, a sinuous bass line, the Aussie artist’s plaintive delivery, a big hook and a wah wah pedaled solo, that sounded as though it were inspired by Starfish era The Church.
  • “Limelight,” a song centered around layers of shimmering guitar jangle, mournful horns and a soaring hook that may be the most dream pop leaning of the Aussie artist’s catalog to date.

The JOVM mainstay closes out 2022 with “Chasing,” a standalone single and first bit of new material since the release of Drifting. Featuring strummed guitar, reverb-drenched, electric guitar jangle, a propulsive rhythm section paired with earnest, seemingly lived-in lyricism and rousingly anthemic hooks, “Chasing” continues a remarkable run of material inspired by Starsailor-like Brit Pop and Dishwalla-like alt rock.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Madame Gandhi Shares Afrobeat Inspired “Heart Wide Open”

Madame Gandhi (born Kiran Gandhi) is an award-winning artist and activist best known for crafting uplifting, percussive electronic music rooted in positive messages about gender liberation and personal power.

Gandhi first cut her teeth as a touring drummer for the likes of M.I.A., Thievery Corporation, Kehlani and others. But she stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist and producer in 2015 after her story about running the London Marathon free-bleeding to combat menstrual stigma went viral around the world. While writing and recording material, the very busy Gandhi has been listed on Forbes 30 Under 30 in Music. Her 2020 TED Talk about conscious music consumption has been viewed over one million times.

Her video for “Waiting For Me,” which was shot in Mumbai won the Music Video Jury Award at last year’s SXSW Film Festival. Her 100% Organically Sourced x Sound MANA nature sound pack won the New Wav award at least year’s Splice Awards.

And adding to a busy resume, Gandhi completed a Masters in Music Science and Technology at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). As part of her studies, she spent time in Antarctica sampling the sounds of glaciers melting to create empathy and awareness around climate change.

Late lat week, the award-winning artist and activist released her latest, short-form album Vibrations through Sony Music Masterworks. The album is a danceable, five-part atmospheric meditation that doubles as a rousing statement on gratitude. Vibrations is the third and final part of a trilogy — following 2016’s Voices and 2019’s Visions — that looks at personal liberation, activism, being in service and evolving in love. “Each mini-album begins with a V because I liked the subliminal reference to the feminine anatomy. It’s healing. It’s energy. It’s music. It’s touch, feel. It’s inclusive,” Gandhi says. But instead of being a coda, Vibrations is about “the feeling of soothing loneliness in a low, vibrational way.”

Fittingly, the album is as effervescently escapist as its title implies and is rooted in personal experience: When Gandhi came out of pandemic-related isolation, she felt as though she were a different person: uplifted, vivacious, content. The album manages to be a psychic rebirth, a life’s plan and a celebration of existence — simultaneously.

Vibrations latest single, the MNDR and Ebonie Smith co-produced “Heart Wide Open” is a joyous club rocker that’s also a loving homage to Fela Kuti with the song featuring a big, funky horn section, twinkling Rhodes and shuffling African-inspired polyrhythm paired with euphoria-inducing hooks and Gandhi’s sultry cooing. The song is rooted in an uplifting message about the power of vulnerability. joy, honesty and of course, music — with a narrator, who’s ready to change things for the positive.
 
 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Dayton’s Nick Kizirnis Shares Bluesy and Mournful “The Distance”

Nick Kizirnis is a Dayton, OH-based singer/songwriter and guitarist, who has spent the past two-plus decades writing genre-twisting and genre-defying material on over ten solo albums, while also collaborating playing in bands like The Mulchmen, Tobin Sprout’s Eyesinweasel, Cage and others with a collection of up-and-coming local musicians.

Over the past decade or so, the Dayton-based artist has focused on guitar-driven compositions; but his latest solo album The Distance sees Kizirnis returning to writing lyrics and arrangements while simultaneously being a step forward stylistically. As Kizirnis explains, he had a desire to push himself beyond anything he had previously done. “I wanted ti to be new and different from what people had heard from me,” the Dayton-based musician and songwriter says.

Kirzirnis’ long-time friend, Austin-based drummer Mark Patterson had just temporarily relocated to Dayton to visit family and prepare touring and recording as a member of acclaimed indie outfit Son Volt. Patterson had offered to work on the material that Kizirnis had worked on, enhancing the material’s arrangements based on his experience playing in the Austin scene. During the creative process for the Patrick Himes-produced The Distance, Kizirnis began to feel that writing for his voice was limiting the material. He recruited Cincinnati-based singer/songwriter and cellist Kate Wakefield, one-half of the duo Lung, to contribute vocals.

Wakefield’s background as an opera singer, plus her years of recording and performing helped pushed the fledgling album and recording sessions into high gear. “Kate brought a completely new dimension to the songs,” Kizirnis says. “The moment she sang them, they were transformed into something so much more.”

Brooding album title track “The Distance” features contributions from Deke Dickerson’s Crazy Joe Tristchler (guitar), Himes (Hammond B3 organ) and Wakefield (cello and vocals). Along with Kizirnis, Tristchler, Himes and Wakefield craft a bluesy and mournful soundscape that recalls The Heartless Bastards and crying-in-your-beer honky tonk. The song’s narrator realizes that their relationship has come to the end of the road, and that its time for both parties to pack up their things and sadly move on,

The Katie Marks 2D animated video for “The Distance” features the song’s central couple falling in and out of love. And as they part ways, we see an animated Kizirnis playing guitar in a desolate, roadside honky tonk.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: McKenna Michels Shares Jason Nevins’ Psych Blues-Tinged Remix of “Born to Die”

McKenna Michels is an Austin-based singer/songwriter, who can trace the origins of her vibrant imagination and love for music to her grandmother, who surrounded a young Michels with classical music, Broadway tunes and Disney musicals. Michels discovered her own musical talent when she would sing along to her personal favorites, like The Phantom of the Opera and Aladdin.

The Austin-based artist’s musical universe was expanded when she was introduced to Lady Gaga, Adele, and Japanese pop/Vocaloid, Against the backdrop of an abusive environment in her mother’s home, Michels began to formally study piano and voice, joining the choir in middle school — and building a foundation as a songwriter by spending hours each day experimenting with keyboard melodies and writing poetry that helped her make sense of the complicated emotions she felt at the time. When she was 16, she wrote her first song.

Interestingly, Michels developed a reputation as a talented opera singer, who performed at The Kennedy Center back in 2017. She wound up stepping away from music temporarily to study technology. But feeling overwhelmed and desperately in need of a way to come to terms with her childhood experiences, the Austin-based artist sought refuge in songwriting. The songs came pouring out. From that point onward, she stared writing vulnerable and earnest stories rooted in her own journey through heartbreak and abuse, and coming out of the other side resilient, hopeful and rediscovering the beauty and need for human connection. This is paired with a vocal delivery informed by pop, R&B and rock.

After performing her original songs at a local club, Michels fully committed herself to pursuing a career in music, and to using her music to continue to heal herself and others. Her debut single. the Jon Muq-produced, Lauren Michels co-written “Tired” appeared on her debut EP Renaissance. “Tired” debuted at #30 and peaked at #21 on the Mediabase chart.

Building upon a growing profile, the Austin-based released her full-length, Jon Muq-produced debut Enlightenment earlier this year. Enlightenment‘s lead single “Broken Like This” landed at #20 on the Adult Contemporary Charts. The album’s second single, the slow-burning and sultry, murder/revenge ballad “Born To Die” was released this past June and debuted at #25 on the Adult Contemporary Charts.

The Nick Peterson-directed video for “Born to Die” premiered as a short film on iHorror.com and amassed over 60,000 views during the first three days of its release, with the video eventually earning over one million views overall. The video was an official selection at this year’s Shockfest, Deep Focus Film Festival, and Screamfest. It won Best Music Video at this year’s California International Shorts Festival and landed a Best Music Video nomination nod at Filmquest.

The Austin-based artist celebrated the success of “Born to Die” with a Jason Nevins-produced remix of the song that pairs Michels’ sultry vocals with tweeter and woofer rattling, industrial-like thump, bluesy, reverb-drenched bursts of guitar, twinkling keys and bursts of soaring, cinematic strings. While retaining the brooding and eerie air of the original, the remix turns the song into a timeless, stormy psych soul bop that pulls out the bluesy elements into the forefront.

“My message in ‘Born to Die’ is for people to never give up because there is life at the end, no matter how many people it feels like are against you or don’t believe you,” explains Michels.

Directed by Nick Peterson, the accompanying lyric video deconstructs the imagery of the original and turns into a horror-themed bit of pop art, centered around the themes of the song and its original video.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Boston’s Mel Fine Shares Soulful and Yearning “Alone Together”

Mel Fine is a rising Boston-based, non-binary singer/songwriter and producer, who cites Etta James and Joni Mitchell as influences. As an artist, the Boston-based artist has developed a sound that meshes soul, jazz and acoustic folk pop paired with a storytelling lyrical approach rooted in lived-in personal experiences. Fine’s goal is to create music for the feelings that are difficult to put into words.

In their very young career, the Boston-based artist has played over 100 stages including the Middle East, Berkshire Pride, the Red Room and countless others across both Boston and New England. Adding to a growing profile, Fine was awarded the 2021 Performance Division Voice Award by the Berklee College of Music Voice Department. They also earned second place in Berklee’s Songs for Social Change Contest with “In Between,” which honestly told of Fine’s experience growing up non-binary.

While continuing their studies at Berklee, Fine has continued to release material, including her sophomore single “Alone Together,” a slickly produced track featuring strummed, Spanish-styled acoustic guitar, atmospheric synths, thumping beats paired with the young Boston-based artist’s soulful and yearning vocal delivery and a well-placed, razor sharp hook. While subtly nodding at both contemporary pop and Quiet Storm soul, “Alone Together” manages to reveal a budding superstar in the making.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Caroline Loveglow Shares Woozy and Atmospheric “Patience, Etc.”

Caroline Loveglow is a Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, who specializes in a meditative dream pop informed by long nights spent at home getting lost in her own head. Sitting in front of her computer, she’d spend her time twisting and contorting familiar sounds into something otherworldly and surreal — pianos could be stretched out into an eerie drone or swirling guitar parts are played through clouds of distortion and reverb. Her dreamy vocals float over the song’s arrangement in an ethereal haze.

Thematically, the Los Angeles-based artist’s work sees her pondering the big existential questions, her own innermost turmoil and what it really means to be human in a mad, mad, mad world.

“Patience, Etc.” appears on Loveglow’s self-produced, full-length debut, Strawberry, which was released earlier this year. Featuring woozy synth arpeggios, a tweeter and woofer rattling boom bap-like breakbeat, distorted and reverb-drenched guitars paired with the Los Angeles-based artist’s ethereal cooing, “Patience” sonically brings The xx, The Horrors, Amber Arcades, and others to mind — but while rooted in yearning and heartbreakingly lived-in lyricism.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Brontë Horder is a rising Aussie-born and-based singer/songwriter, composer and producer, who has written and produced both scores and bespoke songs for TV, films and documentary projects. Her song “Day By Day,” which appeared in the short film Fourteen received a Best Original Song Composed For The Screen nomination at 2019’s APRA-AGSC Screen Music Awardss. Holder also wrote and produced “Everybody Wants To Be Me,” which appeared in Chloe Morello’s YouTube series Not So Famous.

The rising Aussie singer/songwriter, composer and producer has also made a name for herself as a session vocalist, contributing vocals to a variety of projects and ad campaigns, including Survivor Australia, Celebrity Name Game and the ABC. After winning Sony Music Australia‘s songwriting competition Breaking Ground back in 2013, Holder stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist.

Her video for “The Eleventh Hour” premiered on MTV Australia. “Switch It Off” received nods at the Indie Music Channel Awards for Best Pop Song, Best Pop Recording and Best Female Pop Artist.

Cali Satellites specialize in effortless yet deliberately crafted songwriting that’s sometimes beautiful, sometimes dark and always engaging. Their debut single “In the Sunshine” is a silky bit of electro pop/house with nods to funk and indie rock that features sultry vocals from Los Angeles-based artist TIAAN.

Leo Gaurdo is an Italian-born, Melbourne-based DJ, producer and sound engineer, who started DJ’ing at a very young age. Back in 2001, he gained popularity within Italy’s house music scene after playing at Chalet delle Rose. In 2008, Guardo relocated to Australia with the intention of perfecting his skills in sound engineering. With over a decade in the audio industry, Guardo has worked on a number of projects across music, television. But recently, the Italian-born, Aussie-based DJ, producer and sound engineer has been focused on his own production work, releasing crowd pleasing material that meshes elements of tech, deep and house grooves with Balearic and tribal house through several renowned electronic music labels, including Orianna Music, MoBlack Records, King Street Sounds, Wired, Tribe Records and Merecumbe Recordings among others.

The trio collaborated together on the four-song EP Only The Good Ones, which was released earlier this year. Thematically, the EP focuses on the power of words — especially on our mindset. The EP’s first single, EP title track “Only The Good Ones” is a slickly produced pop confection centered around glistening, reverb-drenched guitar, shimmering synth arpeggios, skittering beats and a soaring hook paired with Horder’s ethereal vocals. Sonically, “Only The Good Ones” manages to be simultaneously radio friendly and as though it could played at clubs in Ibiza.

“Only The Good Ones” can trace its origins back to a jam session between Holder and members of Cali Satellites. “At the time we were listening to stories of people who had distorted perceptions of themselves. As Brontë was searching for a melody, out came the lyrics, being at war with ourselves and wanting to reframe the way we think and speak about our minds and our bodies. Everyone’s inner dialogue would be so much kinder if we treated ourselves the way we treat our friends. When our friends talk about their insecurities, we always say beautiful words to them, encouraging them to practice love and forgiveness like ‘don’t be so hard on yourself ’ & ‘you’re doing an amazing job,'” they explain. “We sent it to Leo, who felt inspired and imbued his electronic magic.” Ultimately, the song is a gentle, cautionary tale, that reminds the listener to choose their words carefully.

.