Tag: singer/songwriter \

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Homer Teams Up with girl named GOLDEN on Mischievous, Wes Anderson-Styled Visual for “Wishing Well”

Acclaimed New York-born and-based drummer, songwriter and producer Homer Steinweiss has a storied career that started in earnest when he was just a teenager. He has been instrumental in helping bring the raw-but-receptive soul sound back into the mainstream through his work with Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley. Steinwess has also been behind the kit for nearly every contemporary soul outfit that has mattered. 

The New York-born and-based musician is now one of the most in demand drummers in the world, playing with the likes of Clairo, Solange, Adele, Silk Sonic and Bruno Mars, among a lengthy list of others. And much like his longtime bandmate Dave Guy, Steinweiss is stepping into the spotlight as a both a musician and producer with Ensatina, his first solo album released under the moniker Homer. 

Released last month through Big Crown Records, Ensatina is reflection of who Steinweiss is now and a testament of how struggle often brings about much-needed changes. He was dealing with considerable emotional turbulence; at the same time that his band Holy Hive broke up, a long-personal relationship fell apart, putting him in an uncertain place mentally. The fallout was significant enough for him to seek professional help. “I was going through these super manic highs and then very depressive lows,” Steinweiss explains. “And being in all that, it’s just so tough to imagine that the other side is there, that it’ll be ok.” But, with time, professional help, and support from friends and family, Homer made it through and has been forever changed. This album is a product of that period of his life.

For Steinweiss, creating the album was a refuge, and it put him back on track. Creatives across the world have an innate understanding of that. But the album is also a glimpse into the different energies that influences that make the man and the artist tick. And fittingly, the album is the beginning of a new, interesting chapter of Steinweiss’ life and career. 

In the lead up to the album’s release I wrote about three of it’s released singles:

  • “Deep Sea,” feat. Hether, a slow-burning and woozy love song set over a hypnotic back beat, a gorgeous, dreamy trumpet line and a strummed acoustic guitar line. The lush and meditative arrangement compliments Hether’s dreamily romantic delivery and lyrics, which includes a sweet nod to Steinwess now wife. The song seems to suggest that when we’re struggling in life’s deep sea, love — in all of its forms — can be the lifeline. 

  • “Rollin‘” a lush and swaggering Quiet Storm-like soundscape with skittering and plinking 808s, broodingly regal horns, bursts of strummed guitar and KIRBY’s ethereal delivery, which alternates between scatting and cooing lyrics over the lush production. 

  • “So Get Up!,” a strutting and swaggering bit of hook-driven genre-blurring funk anchored around dusty and skittering boom bap, twinkling synth oscillations and glistening and arpeggiated synth melodies serving as a lush and euphoric bed for MINOVA’s and Michael Rault‘s ethereal and expressive deliveries. Sonically resembling a slick synthesis of 80s synth funk, Rush Midnight and Tame Impala, “So Get Up!” reveals an artist with an adept production style. 

Ensatina‘s fourth and latest single “Wishing Well” featuring girl named GOLDEN is a brooding track anchored around a trippy yet soulful groove that’s influenced by late Miles Davis-like jazz, electronic music, soul and trip-hop paired with skittering and chugging drums and glistening synths serving as a woozily lush soundscape for girl named GOLDEN’s sultry cooing. Much like its immediate predecessor, “Wishing Well” reveals an artist with a unique, playfully genre agnostic sound.

Directed by Ben Steiger Levine and Jordan Fein, the accompanying video is a Wes Anderson-inspired romp shot in and around one of the most gorgeous buildings in NYC, the New York Public Library, that captures the pair’s mischievous misfit-like energy.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Larmes Noires Shares Shoegazey “L’aurore”

Mathieu Schreyer is a French singer/songwriter and musician, best known for his synth wave project MPKS. His side, solo recording project Larmes Noires is a decided departure from his best known work: Larmes Noires sees Schreyer exploring darker thoughts, much more honest feelings paired with soundscapes inspired by Joy Division, My Bloody Valentine, The Cure and the like, and dreamily delivered vocals.

Since starting Larmes Noires, Schreyer has released a handful of singles, last year’s full-length debut, Les ombres dérangées and the recently released self-produced sophomore album Stigmate. Sonically blending elements of post-rock, shoegaze and darkwave to create an atmospheric and immersive soundscape, the album’s material was crafted as an intimate journey, where each track serves as a raw expression of vulnerability and resilience. And fittingly, the album’s material touches upon themes of melancholy, social isolation, inner strength and resolve — in a deeply personal fashion.

Stigmate‘s latest single “L’aurore,” is a brooding and cinematic track that pairs elements of Souvlaki and A Storm in Heaven-era shoegaze with Collapse Under the Empire-like post-rock paired with Schreyer’s plaintive and ethereal delivery and enormous hooks. At its core, there is a sense of resilience and hope.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay MAGON Shares Dreamily Introspective “Falling In Love”

Earlier this year, the prolific JOVM mainstay MAGON released his ninth album, Wedding Song, which featured two tracks I managed to write about here:

Album track “The Wedding Song,” a 70s Laurel Canyon/AM rock-like number featuring shimmering guitars, a shuffling yet propulsive rhythm and a glistening and soulful guitar solo paired with MAGON’s unerring knack for crafting catchy hooks. But under the slick and seemingly effortless craftsmanship is a song that feels much like the contented sigh of someone who after much effort and struggle, has found the true, long-lasting love they’ve long hoped for. The song marks the one-year anniversary of MAGON’s wedding to his now-wife Alexa, and is dedicated to their love.

“Portobello’s On The Run,” a mediative and folksy bit of Nick Drake-like psych folk anchored around an ethereal and old-timey mellotron flute lines, strummed acoustic guitar and tight-drum pattern paired with the Israeli-born, Costa Rican-based artist’s plaintively singing whimsical yet introspective lyrics. 

Closing out 2024, the JOVM mainstay will be releasing his 10th — yeah, 10th overall and third this year y’all — album, World Peace. World Peace will feature the previously released “Stoned Seclusion Blues” reveals yet another shift in sound direction with the track seemingly drawing from the Madchester sound of The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses.

World Peace’s second and latest single “Falling In Love” is a dreamy psych folk ballad featuring strummed acoustic guitar, bursts of buzzing power chords and ethereal flutes paired with the JOVM’s mainstay giving an introspective and thoughtful vocal turn.

Thematically, the song is a journey of love and self-discovery, honed by hard-earned wisdom, experience and understanding of how difficult and maddening love can be — especially in a desperate, stark world.

The accompanying video follows a young woman wandering through the damp Costa Rican countryside and is shot with a loving, dreamy quality.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Homer Teams Up with girl named GOLDEN on Woozy “Wishing Well”

Acclaimed New York-born and-based drummer, songwriter and producer Homer Steinweiss has a storied career that started in earnest when he was just a teenager. He has been instrumental in helping bring the raw-but-receptive soul sound back into the mainstream through his work with Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley. Steinwess has also been behind the kit for nearly every contemporary soul outfit that has mattered. 

The New York-born and-based musician is now one of the most in demand drummers in the world, playing with the likes of Clairo, Solange, Adele, Silk Sonic and Bruno Mars, among a lengthy list of others. And much like his longtime bandmate Dave Guy, Steinweiss is stepping into the spotlight as a both a musician and producer with Ensatina, his first solo album released under the moniker Homer. 

Slated for a November 15, 2024 release through Big Crown Records, Ensatina is reflection of who Steinweiss is now and a testament of how struggle often brings about much-needed changes. He was dealing with considerable emotional turbulence; at the same time that his band Holy Hive broke up, a long-personal relationship fell apart, putting him in an uncertain place mentally. The fallout was significant enough for him to seek professional help. “I was going through these super manic highs and then very depressive lows,” Steinweiss explains. “And being in all that, it’s just so tough to imagine that the other side is there, that it’ll be ok.” But, with time, professional help, and support from friends and family, Homer made it through and has been forever changed. This album is a product of that period of his life.

For Steinweiss, creating the album was a refuge, and it put him back on track. Creatives across the world have an innate understanding of that. But the album is also a glimpse into the different energies that influences that make the man and the artist tick. And fittingly, the album is the beginning of a new, interesting chapter of Steinweiss’ life and career. 

So far I’ve written about three of Ensatina‘s singles:

  • “Deep Sea,” feat. Hether, a slow-burning and woozy love song set over a hypnotic back beat, a gorgeous, dreamy trumpet line and a strummed acoustic guitar line. The lush and meditative arrangement compliments Hether’s dreamily romantic delivery and lyrics, which includes a sweet nod to Steinwess now wife. The song seems to suggest that when we’re struggling in life’s deep sea, love — in all of its forms — can be the lifeline. 

  • “Rollin‘” a lush and swaggering Quiet Storm-like soundscape with skittering and plinking 808s, broodingly regal horns, bursts of strummed guitar and KIRBY’s ethereal delivery, which alternates between scatting and cooing lyrics over the lush production. 

  • “So Get Up!,” a strutting and swaggering bit of hook-driven genre-blurring funk anchored around dusty and skittering boom bap, twinkling synth oscillations and glistening and arpeggiated synth melodies serving as a lush and euphoric bed for MINOVA’s and Michael Rault‘s ethereal and expressive deliveries. Sonically resembling a slick synthesis of 80s synth funk, Rush Midnight and Tame Impala, “So Get Up!” reveals an artist with an adept production style. 

Ensatina‘s fourth and latest single “Wishing Well” featuring girl named GOLDEN is a brooding track anchored around a trippy yet soulful groove that’s influenced by late Miles Davis-like jazz, electronic music, soul and trip-hop paired with skittering and chugging drums and glistening synths serving as a woozily lush soundscape for girl named GOLDEN’s sultry cooing. Much like its immediate predecessor, “Wishing Well” reveals an artist with a unique, playfully genre agnostic sound.

The song is accompanied by a trippy video featuring the album’s namesake lizard Ensatina, done in 3D animation by Alex Cascone.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Plumes Shares Broodingly Cinematic “Jeanne’s Visions”

Veronica Charnley is an acclaimed Montréal-born Paris-based singer/songwriter and guitarist, who is best known as the creative mastermind behind Plumes, her solo recording project that sees her drawing from contemporary pop and classical music.

Charnley’s fourth Plumes album, Many Moons Away is slated for a Friday release. The soon-to-be released album’s second and latest single “Jeanne’s Visions” is a broodingly cinematic track featuring strummed and plucked guitar, a soaring string arrangement paired with the Montréal-born, Paris-based artist’s ethereal delivery. While sonically nodding at Dark Side of the Moon-era Pink Floyd and country, the song is inspired by the story of Joan of Arc, who one afternoon while in her garden, first perceived voices, intertwined with church bells, guiding her to her calling, Charnley explains. She adds that “the arrangement uses harmonics in the guitar and viola, giving that otherworldly sound and the rhythm in the guitar during the verses is reminiscent of Jeanne’s trotting horse as she heads for battle.”

The accompanying video for “Jeanne’s Visions” features the acclaimed artist in a garden on a sun-dappled day, much like one Joan of Arc had her vision.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Charles “Wigg” Walker Shares Optimistic, Two Step-Inducing “(Feels Like) Things Are Comin’ Our Way”

Tracing the origins of his nearly eight decade-long career back to when he began singing at an early age in church and then later in school, Nashville-born and-based soul singer/songwriter Charles “Wigg” Walker released his first single back in 1959 through Ted Jarrett‘s legendary and beloved Champion Records.

Walker relocated to New York, where he became a frontman for the J.C. Davis Band, an outfit that shared bills with James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Etta James, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. His first group, Little Charles and the Sidewinders because a New York nightclub scene staple in the early 1960s, and would then go on to record and release material through Chess and Decca Records.

After spending over a decade on the road, Walker took a staff writing role with Motown in the 70s. By the start of the 80, Walker relocated to Europe. where continued to find enthusiastic audiences. But the blues, R&B and soul revival movements that started in the 90s ultimately brought Walker back to Nashville.

This Love Is Gonna Last is the first album from the Nashville-born and-based soul artist in over a decade, while also being the first album since his stint fronting The Dynamites in the early 2010s. Recorded with longtime organist and collaborator Charles Treadway, the album’s material reportedly shifts seamlessly between different and distinct ears of soul, bouncing from Philly to Motown, to Memphis and more. The album’s richly lush arrangements are owed to Walker’s chemistry with his core backing trio — Treadway, along with Chet Atkins‘s and Lyle Lovett‘s Pat Bergeson (guitar) and Average White Band‘s and Tom Jones‘ Pete Abbott (drums).

While superficially joyous, thematically, the album’s material is underpinned by the wizened and insightful recognition of our own impending and inevitable morality, of time’s inexorable march, and the lessons and losses that come with all of it.

Underneath the album’s joyful truce, there’s the wizened recognition of time’s inexorable march, of our own mortality and the lessons and losses that come with it. In fact, the album is a dedication to Walker’s late wife, who died earlier this year.

Ultimately, the album reportedly is the sort of album he’s been building towards for his entire lengthy career, and a showcase not only for his vocal, but also for the unparalleled emotional range that’s defined his work for over 50 years. Now, with his unflagging faith and dedication as the bedrock of This Love Is Gonna Last, Walker may finally be getting his due. “I feel more appreciated now than ever,” he says. “There’s something different about this album. It just feels right.”

This Love Is Gonna Last‘s first single “(Feels Like) Things Are Comin’ Our Way” is the perfect tune for your grandma and grandpa or your uncle and auntie to sweetly sway and two-step together at a Black barbecue or a Black wedding. Those of y’all, who know, know what I’m talking about and can immediate picture it in your mind’s eye. Sonically resembling a slick synthesis of Luther Vandross‘ “Never Too Much,” Keni Burke‘s “Risin’ To The Top,” The Isley Brothers‘ legendary 70s output and gospel, “(Feels Like) Things Are Comin’ Our Way” is a sweetly earnest and school declaration of the sort of love that we all long for — the love that’s there with you, through the ups, downs and everything in between.

“This song sums up this whole album for me really,” says Walker about the new single. “After all the places I’ve been and all the bands I’ve performed with and all the recordings I’ve made, it feels like things are finally starting to come my way.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy Belated 57th Birthday, Scott Weiland!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates the 57th anniversary of Scott Weiland’s birth.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: SUNSAY Shares Soulful and Introspective “Papa’s Song”

Andrey Zaporozhets is a Ukrainian singer/songwriter and musician, whose career started in earnest back in 2000. Zaporozhets first captured audiences as one-half of 5’nizza. With bandmate Sergey Babkin, the duo gained recognition for a unique and authentic sound that paired acoustic guitar with soulful vocals and harmonies and thoughtful lyrics.

5’nizza went on hiatus in 2007. Zaporozhets stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with his solo recording project SUNSAY. Through the release of seven studio albums, two EPs and a handful of standalone singles, the Ukrainian artist has firmly established a sound that pairs soulful vocals and expressive and introspective lyrics that reflect his personal journey and experience. Thematically anchored in a message of finding common ground within and around us, Zaporozhets believes that his work has the power to create and inspire unity.

SUNSAY’s latest single “Papa’s Song” is the first bit of new material from the Ukrainian singer/songwriter and musician in over two years. Anchored around a classic, cinematic soul-inspired sound featuring a glistening Rhodes, shuffling rhythms, soaring strings, a supple bass line and soulful backing and lead vocals, “Papa’s Song” recalls What’s Going On-era Marvin Gaye and contemporaries like Monophonics and others. Lyrically and thematically, the new single is arguably one of the Ukrainian artist’s most personal to date. Written as a tribute to his father, the song explores the complex and conflicting emotions between fathers and sons, while reaching a point of understanding and accepting his father for the complicated, flawed, whole person he was with a sense of forgiveness.

Directed by Sam Bagdasarov, the accompanying video for “Papa’s Song” is shot in a gorgeous, cinematic black and white. We follow a young boy and the grown Zaporozhets but their roles are reversed, almost like the movie Big: The boy, wearing a false mustache for a significant portion of the video, plays the role of the parent with Zaporozhets playing the role of the child. Through this view, and the wisdom he’s earned through his life, the grown Zaporozhets comes to a deeper, empathetic understanding of his father; an understanding that he wouldn’t have come to when he was younger.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Homer Teams Up with MINOVA and Michael Rault on Slick and Swaggering “So Get Up!

Acclaimed New York-born and-based drummer, songwriter and producer Homer Steinweiss has a storied career that started in earnest when he was just a teenager. He has been instrumental in helping bring the raw-but-receptive soul sound back into the mainstream through his work with Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley. Steinwess has also been behind the kit for nearly every contemporary soul outfit that has mattered. 

The New York-born and-based musician is now one of the most in demand drummers in the world, playing with the likes of Clairo, Solange, Adele, Silk Sonic and Bruno Mars, among a lengthy list of others. And much like his longtime bandmate Dave Guy, Steinweiss is stepping into the spotlight as a both a musician and producer with Ensatina, his first solo album released under the moniker Homer. 

Slated for a November 15, 2024 release through Big Crown Records, Ensatina is reflection of who Steinweiss is now and a testament of how struggle often brings about much-needed changes. He was dealing with considerable emotional turbulence; at the same time that his band Holy Hive broke up, a long-personal relationship fell apart, putting him in an uncertain place mentally. The fallout was significant enough for him to seek professional help. “I was going through these super manic highs and then very depressive lows,” Steinweiss explains. “And being in all that, it’s just so tough to imagine that the other side is there, that it’ll be ok.” But, with time, professional help, and support from friends and family, Homer made it through and has been forever changed. This album is a product of that period of his life.

For Steinweiss, creating the album was a refuge, and it put him back on track. Creatives across the world have an innate understanding of that. But the album is also a glimpse into the different energies that influences that make the man and the artist tick. And fittingly, the album is the beginning of a new, interesting chapter of Steinweiss’ life and career. 

So far I’ve written about two of Ensantina‘s singles:

  • “Deep Sea,” feat. Hether, a slow-burning and woozy love song set over a hypnotic back beat, a gorgeous, dreamy trumpet line and a strummed acoustic guitar line. The lush and meditative arrangement compliments Hether’s dreamily romantic delivery and lyrics, which includes a sweet nod to Steinwess now wife. The song seems to suggest that when we’re struggling in life’s deep sea, love — in all of its forms — can be the lifeline. The track between the two friends came together quickly, with Steinweiss remarking, “It’s my favorite song on the album. Hether, as a friend, saw me through my highs and lows, and this track captures the full energy of what was happening during the time we were recording.”

  • The album’s second single, album opening track “Rollin‘” features the self-proclaimed “granddaughter of soul” KIRBY. The song is anchored around a lush and swaggering, Quiet Storm-like soundscape with skittering and plinking 808s, broodingly regal horns, bursts of strummed guitar. KIRBY’s ethereal delivery, which alternates between scatting and cooing lyrics, floats over the lush production. Steinweiss fell in love with the melody scratch track, and, as he puts it, “the first take, that scratch take is always the one with the most feeling to it.” He ultimately decided to keep the first take for the album, loving the way it forces the listener to come up with their own interpretation of what exactly KIRBY is singing.

Ensatina’s latest single “So Get Up!” feat. MINOVA and Michael Rault is a strutting and swaggering bit of hook-driven, genre-blurring funk anchored around dusty and skittering boom bap, twinkling synth oscillations and glistening and arpeggiated synth melodies serving as a lush and euphoric bed for MINOVA’s ethereal and expressive delivery. Sonically resembling a slick synthesis of 80s synth funk, Rush Midnight and Tame Impala, “So Get Up!” reveals an artist with an adept production style.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montréal’s APACALDA Shares Cinematic and Woozy “She’s Not Coming”

Cassandra Angheluta is a Romanian-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter and the creative mastermind behind the solo recording project APACALDA. Deriving its name from the Romanian word for “warm water,” Angheluta’s solo project is both a reflection of her movement through her art and life, and a reminder to reconnect with the warmth that can calm and ground her, despite the chaos and unpredictability of outside circumstances.

Much like countless other artists, the Romanian-Canadian artist has found that through creating music, she can process and alchemize emotional traumas from throughout the course of her life, while giving her a sense of peace. Her work typically touches upon themes of devastation and transcendence.

With 2022’s self-titled, debut EP, which featured collaborations with Robert Robert; FHANG‘s Luca Fogale‘s and Half Moon Run‘s Sam Woywitka; FHANG’s, Patrick Watson‘s and TEKE :: TEKE’s Mishka Stein; Half Moon Run’s Isaac Symonds and the Esca Quartet, Angheluta quickly established a fresh take on indie rock, electro pop and New Wave/post-punk, crating a sound that has been described as melancholic, dreamy, enigmatic and hauntingly beautiful.

The Romanian-Canadian artist’s Miskha Stein and Sam Woywitka co-produced full-length debut, There’s a Shadow In My Room and It Isn’t Mine is slated for release next year. Thematically, the album delves into mental illness, obsession, jealousy and deceit.

The album’s first single “She’s Not There” features distorted and churning guitar tones, skittering and propulsive beats, atmospheric synths serving as a woozy and uneasy bed for Anghuleta’s achingly plaintive yet defiant delivery, evoking the turmoil and restlessness of its narrator. According to the Montréal-based artist, “She’s Not Coming” tells the story of a woman, who chooses to end her life, despite her outward devotion to God. While capturing the hidden struggles behind its narrator’s stoic exterior, the track sheds light on the pervasive nature of suicide. “I write these songs as an extension of healing—I want to be a medium. I often feel others’ pain and I want to express it in honour of them,” Angheluta says.

Directed by Mallis, a Montréal-based filmmaker, art director and production designer, known for visually rich storytelling, the accompanying video for “She’s Not Coming” was funded by The MVP Project and shot in Georgia, not too far from Angheluta’s homeland. While anchored in the themes of its accompanying song, the video follows the final journey of Louisa, an elderly woman, who ends her life, and is based on the true story of a friend, whose mother’s death was suspected to be a suicide. The friend’s mother was a deeply religious woman, who ultimately chose to leave the church. This lead to her exclusion from her religious community.

The friend’s mom was known to walk along the shores of a beach near her home. One morning, local news outlets reported that a woman’s body washed ashore. The friend knew it was his mother, realizing that he’d never speak or see her again. “Through her story, we really wanted to emphasize the impact of community on someone’s mental and emotional well-being,” the director and artist explain.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Shrines Shares Eerie “Witch Season”

Arguably best known for stints with Ponyhof and Will Butler, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and musician Carrie Erving is the creative mastermind behind the indie electro pop recording project Shrines. Erving’s work, which sees her deftly weaving elements of pop, electronic music, indie rock and Irish sean-nós (traditional Irish folk singing) into a shimmering take on art-pop that The New York Times has described as “spellbinding.”

Erving’s latest Shrines EP, the four-song Rosana Cabán-produced Seasons is slated for an October 18, 2024 release. The EP’s material explores the fragility of the individual seasons, documenting the collective cognitive dissonance of the fluctuations between celebration and trepidation that come about during a time of rapidly escalating climate change. Each of the EP’s songs lyrically suggest to the listener that allowing ourselves to save the present moment may be one of the keys to grappling with one of the largest challenges of our moment.

Seasons‘ latest single “Witch Season” is an eerie and brooding bit of electro pop featuring buzzing bass synths, gently oscillating atmospheric synths, skittering beats paired with Erving’s soaring vocals. Sonically, the song reminds me of a synthesis of Stevie Nicks, Bjork and Portishead while being a homage to fall and spooky season, evoking creepy crawlies and spirits lurking around the corner.

Directed by Brody Bernheisel, the accompanying video follows the Brooklyn-based artist in a flowing, black dress, driving to the woods where she fittingly dances around a bonfire. Visually, the video seems to draw from Madonna‘s “Like A Prayer” and Victoria + Jean’s “Harlight Sverige.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Rebecca Haviland and Whiskey Heart Shares Strutting and Anthemic “Monday Nights”

New York-born and-based singer/songwriter Rebecca Haviland has deep musical roots: Her grandparents were professional musicians in Westchester’s vibrant supper club scene in the 1950s. “Their house was a musical sanctuary,” she recalls, where impromptu family jam sessions lit the spark of her passion for music.

After high school, Haviland pursued music studies and interned at Mamaroneck-based Acme Studios. There, studio owner Peter Denenberg discovered her talent and offered her the chance to record an EP. “That single experience changed the course of my life,” Haviland says. Her debut gig at The Bitter End — where Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan also started their careers — marked the start of Haviland’s career.

Over the course of her two decade career, Haviland, along with her backing band Whiskey Heart — Martin Sexton‘s Chris Anderson, Dispatch‘s Kenny Shaw, Cross, Stills & Nash‘s Todd Caldwell and Nicky Barbato have captivated audiences with their pairing of Haviland’s powerhouse vocals and introspective songwriting with an effortless blend of roots rock, soul and Americana.

Whiskey Hearts 2013 full-length debut garnered awards in the International Songwriting Competition and Unsigned Only Competition. 2018’s Don DiLego-produced Bright City Lights, which featured “Bright City Lights” and “You and I” was released to praise from Paste Magazine, who wrote that the album was “hauntingly beautiful.” The video for “Bright City Lights” also earned an International Songwriting Competition nod.

In 2019, Haviland and Whiskey Heart recorded two live albums at Memphis‘ iconic Sun Studios. The albums featured both originals and covers like John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery.” 2022’s holiday album, A Holiday to Remember featured both classic and original holiday tunes.

Over the past decade, Haviland has nurtured young musicians as a professor at SUNY Purchase’s Music Conservatory, where she shares her industry insights and inspires students to push their creative boundaries.

Currently Haviland and her Whiskey Heart bandmates are working on their forthcoming Paul Loren-produced album. Slated for a 2025 release, the ten-song album draws inspiration from the likes of Aretha Franklin, Linda Ronstadt, Brandi Carlile and Jason Isbell. To build up buzz for the album, the band will be releasing the Late Nights EP on November 15, 2024.

The album’s first single “Monday Nights” is a gritty and soulful rocker featuring a glam rock-inspired riff, rousingly anthemic, raise-your-beer-in-the-air-and-sing-a-long hooks and choruses, a strutting bass line paired with Haviland’s Ronnie Spector-like delivery. It’s the sort of song that should amp you up for a night of hijinks, carousing and rabble-rousing. But it also captures a sadly-lost sense of infinite possibilities and weirdness that you used to encounter on a random night out in New York. (I think of this one time, where I met these two British brothers. One of them was trying to score coke in the bar. I was standing by them, thinking “Should I even be here?” I wound up bar hopping with one of the brothers. He had a fistful of $20 bills and he was willing to pay for everything.)

“I really wanted to write a song with a heavy riff and an Elvis Costello meets the Stranglers vibe; old school New York with a don’t give a fuck attitude,” Rebecca Haviland says. “The lyric and production of this song really capture the vibe and inspiration behind the entire EP.  It’s about the old music scene in New York, a time when you could go out on Monday nights, also known in the New York music scene as ‘Musicians Night Off,’ and bang around on Bleecker Street or in the East Village hanging at different music venues and meeting up with friends, seeing some killer music, or playing your own show that everyone in the scene would come out and support.  Sometimes we would even have multiple gigs on the same night, just walking down the street to the next club and playing another set.  Every club would feel so alive and inspiring.  You could feel the musicians and audience feeding off each other.  It was a time before social media, when you would just head out to the neighborhood to find out what was going on.  This is the New York that made me who I am, and even now 20 years later, the city has changed a lot, but it’s still my favorite night to play a gig or go out and see music.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Homer and KIRBY Share Mind-Bending Visual for Lush “Rollin'”

Acclaimed New York-born and-based drummer, songwriter and producer Homer Steinweiss has a storied career that started in earnest when he was just a teenager. He has been instrumental in helping bring the raw-but-receptive soul sound back into the mainstream through his work with Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley. Steinwess has also been behind the kit for nearly every contemporary soul outfit that has mattered. 

The New York-born and-based musician is now one of the most in demand drummers in the world, playing with the likes of Clairo, Solange, Adele, Silk Sonic and Bruno Mars, among a lengthy list of others. And much like his longtime bandmate Dave Guy, Steinweiss is stepping into the spotlight as a both a musician and producer with Ensatina, his first solo album released under the moniker Homer. 

Slated for a November 15, 2024 release through Big Crown Records, Ensatina is reflection of who Steinweiss is now and a testament of how struggle often brings about much-needed changes. He was dealing with considerable emotional turbulence; at the same time that his band Holy Hive broke up, a long-personal relationship fell apart, putting him in an uncertain place mentally. The fallout was significant enough for him to seek professional help. “I was going through these super manic highs and then very depressive lows,” Steinweiss explains. “And being in all that, it’s just so tough to imagine that the other side is there, that it’ll be ok.” But, with time, professional help, and support from friends and family, Homer made it through and has been forever changed. This album is a product of that period of his life.

For Steinweiss, creating the album was a refuge, and it put him back on track. Creatives across the world have an innate understanding of that. But the album is also a glimpse into the different energies that influences that make the man and the artist tick. And fittingly, the album is the beginning of a new, interesting chapter of Steinweiss’ life and career. 

The album’s second single, album opening track “Rollin’” features the self-proclaimed “granddaughter of soul” KIRBY. The song is anchored around a lush and swaggering, Quiet Storm-like soundscape with skittering and plinking 808s, broodingly regal horns, bursts of strummed guitar. KIRBY’s ethereal delivery, which alternates between scatting and cooing lyrics, floats over the lush production. 

Steinweiss fell in love with the melody scratch track, and, as he puts it, “the first take, that scratch take is always the one with the most feeling to it.” He ultimately decided to keep the first take for the album, loving the way it forces the listener to come up with their own interpretation of what exactly KIRBY is singing.

The accompanying animated video by Alex Cascone evokes a gentle yet mind-bending psilocybin trip that features a regal looking lizard and morphing geometric shapes.