Elle Graham is a Melbourne transplant, having moved with her piano from Townsville, in regional Queensland, to the hub of Australian indie music. Best known as Woodes, she released her debut album Crystal Ball on November 13 – an ethereal, hypnotic, meditative exploration of inner and external landscapes.
The album was a balm for Graham’s soul after relentless touring off the back of her Golden Hour EP. She teamed up with producer Danny Harley (aka The Kite String Tangle) to co-write “Close,” a combination of flute, saxophone and anthemic vocals. Written in just three hours, Graham took the ease of its coming together as a sign that she’d write a full-length album just as quickly.
And she did – “Close” was such a powerful instigator that Graham wrote 40 songs for the album, much of it done during a three-week period in Los Angeles with Grammy-nominated songwriter/producer Scott Effman. Effman built his reputation as a producer who can defy genre boundaries to craft earworm pop music by working his magic with Akon, Kelly Clarkson, Mike Posner, Dean Lewis and Tiesto; Graham had worked with him previously for one of her favorite Golden Hour cuts, “Dots.”
“It was my first ever writing trip. I went over to play Canadian Music Week and then my publishers and management arranged for me to do a day with Scott Effman. In only two days, we were immediately on the same wavelength,” she remembers. “We work very well together, so I reached out to him to do an extended period of writing for Crystal Ball. That was a lot of fun, sometimes spending 15-hour days where all we were doing was writing and working on music and only breaking to get food.”
It was also during this period in LA that Graham wrote “Crystal Ball” with collaborator Jason Hahs. The song is inflected with Graham’s sonic tribute to the sci-fi and fantasy aesthetic and vibe that she’s long been in love with. “We both really love Game of Thrones and sci-fi,” she admits, which makes it into the playful song. “There’s lots of weird spells and sound effects, like wizards dueling. There’s about 100 layers of mandolins, vocoders and different sounds in it.”
“Writing about 40 songs for the record, there’s a lot of variety,” she adds. Electric guitar soars over Graham’s romantic promises on “How Long I’d Wait,” “Queen of The Night” reveals a dreamlike imaginary world in its curious instrumentation, and Graham revels in the melancholy sweetness of “This Is My Year.”
The last song on the album, “Distant Places” was a collaborative consequence of working with US producer Alex Somers, who had also worked on one of Graham’s favorite records, Valtari by Sigur Ros.
Between those first and last songs, “Staring At The Fire” was her paean to home. Graham was raised in Townsville, a northern Australian town where the heat and humidity are well-suited to the dreamily perfect beaches and lush mangroves. Graham’s mum is a marine biologist and her father, a park ranger. For Graham, music was as much of an obsession as nature and her childhood was immersed in both. She wrote “Staring At The Fire” on the old piano she’d brought from Townsville. It now resides in her home studio in Brunswick, a suburb in Melbourne’s inner north.
“I’ve lived in Melbourne now for seven years,” says Graham. “It’s been rough this year [with COVID19], but I love it here. All my family are American and they’re living on the West Coast. I’m an American citizen so I got to vote in the recent election. It was surreal.”
Graham moved to Melbourne to study music composition at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), one of Austalia’s leading arts colleges. “I worked hard to build a folio to apply there to study Interactive Composition. You’re right next to dancers, visual artists and musicians. It’s a lot about creating your own Melbourne groove,” she explains. “It’s very special because my band are all from VCA too. The students who attend VCA are dedicated to turning their practice into a job. I actually mentor and teach students there now. It brings me a lot of joy to be able to share the things I wish I’d been taught.”
While at school, Graham kickstarted her career by releasing a string of singles warmly received by radio audiences. “The Thaw” was added to full rotation on Triple J, and “Rise” received over 3.1 million streams on Spotify; they would eventually land on her self-titled debut EP. Stand-alone single “Change My Mind” was featured on fifteen international New Music Friday playlists, including from France, the UK and Vietnam, and the subsequent release of Golden Hour in 2018 officially made Woodes an artist worth watching.
Graham wanted Crystal Ball to bring fantasy into the everyday, so walking through her suburb in armor felt like the ideal way to do this. “It takes a while to find community when you move to a new place. Brunswick is a perfect place for that… I’ve lived in a bunch of sharehouses around Melbourne and Brunswick is very close to the city, but sort of in the suburbs still,” she says. “A lot of my musician friends live around the corner. We have board game nights, dinners and gathering around the fireplace. There’s a lot of co-working spaces and studios around here.” Suffice to say, her neighbors didn’t bat an eye to see her traipsing about dressed like a Medieval warrior.
Her community provided creative connections, too. “During lockdown, Nick Mckk, who lives just down the road, dropped off camera equipment on my veranda, then he takes it away and edits it. We worked on the ‘Crystal Ball’ music video and a bunch of making of videos too,” Graham says.
But perhaps her biggest break through to date has been in a well-known virtual community – Minecraft. “All of my work has a visual element, so I’d work with directors and game developers, including with the Minecraft project. Minecraft is a very creative game, almost like The Sims; you can create your own dream house, so in mine there’s a giant train and a crystal ball in the middle of the town. You can visit each of the songs on the album via this train network,” Graham explains. “I’ve played a lot more Minecraft than I ever expected! I thought it was so cool to allow access to this place if you bought my album, so you could hear my songs for the first time in the world and interact with me by asking questions about how I made them.”
Graham is excited to finally allow the world beyond Minecraft to enter her auditory universe. From Townsville to Melbourne, via Los Angeles, the album is an amalgam of all her worlds. Now it can be ours.
When Indian-American singer-songwriter Subhi went to LA to record a new song in March, she’d just begun hearing news about COVID-19. Tasked with improvising a song in the studio, she began offloading her feelings about the rising pandemic. The result is “Wake Me Up,” a meditative, vocoder-enhanced single about coming to terms with a rapidly changing world.
“We were in these dark times where everyone was quarantined and we were going to have to wear masks,” she remembers. “I knew that would close things up for a bit, so that was a song about what was happening around us.”
Even though the chorus — “wake me up, wake me up, wake me now/pull me out from the dark” — may sound like a plea to escape the situation, she also considers it to be a hopeful message, anticipating the process of emerging from the COVID era. “‘Wake Me Up’ is really about how these are dark times, but I also am realizing that I will wake up,” she explains.
This mixture of darkness and hope characterizes the in-progress EP on which “Wake Me Up” will eventually appear. “They aren’t feel-good, happy songs, but they are songs with a silver lining,” she says. “I’d like to believe my goal is to create meaningful songs, but songs that also have hope and shed some light on good stuff happening in the future.”
Subhi’s 2017 debut, Shaitaan Dii, is very different from her recent work, incorporating elements of Indian folk music, American pop, and jazz. It was recorded in collaboration with a jazz band, and on it, you can hear an unlikely combination of scatting and Hindi.
During this phase of her career, Subhi was leading an all-male band, and she remembers dealing with a band member who was bullying her and bossing her around. “He would try to shut me down and discredit me and discredit my songs,” she remembers. “It took me two years to figure out what was going on. [Then] I got the courage to stand up and be like, ‘This is my band, and this is the way I want to do it, and everyone needs to respect everyone.'”
After that, she went through a period where she was reluctant to collaborate with anyone out of fear that the same thing would happen again. Though her combative band member was no longer in her way, she was getting in her own way — which inspired “In My Way,” a slow, synthy single about the effects of hanging on to past hurts. Once she came to that realization, she picked herself back up and collaborated with a variety of producers and other artists, which ultimately became corrective experiences that opened her up again.
She also considers “Wake Me Up,” which was recorded with producer Taylor Sparks, a testament to this transformation. In addition to waking up from the dark times of COVID, the song is about “waking me up as an artist,” she explains. “And really, these collaborations did pull me out of the dark, so it’s really symbolic of what was happening in the outer world and what was happening with me internally.”
Subhi’s path to becoming a musician has been long and winding. After growing up in India and attending high school in the U.S., she went to college for finance and minored in music, then began working on Wall Street by day and covering Indian entertainment as a TV news reporter by night. Through the latter job, she met Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair, who was looking for a music intern, and ended up getting the position.
“After that whole project, I realized, ‘Oh, my god, this is what I could see myself doing my whole life — music is it,” she remembers. “So, I usually say it took me three careers to realize music is my true passion.” Her husband lived in Chicago, so for a while, she split her time between there and Mumbai, working on music for Bollywood films. Soon, she realized she wanted to be a full-time artist, so she planted herself in Chicago and forged ties with its jazz scene.
In the past, she’s experienced internal conflict between her Indian and American identities, especially with regard to her music. One of the upcoming songs on her EP, “Better,” is about reconciling these differences and choosing both sides of herself. “I was dealing with this whole conflict of ‘which one do I choose?'” she says. “And now, I’m more settled, it’s kind of resolved — I’m two sides of this coin.” She’s continued to sing in both English and Hindi, and even though her new EP is primarily inspired by American pop, she considers it Indian-influenced simply because it’s inspired by her life.
“Every song on my EP is very personal to me,” she says. “There’s a story behind every song, and everything written in the EP is an observation for my own personal life. Everything is something I have personally experienced. There are a lot of different themes in the EP, and I hope people resonate with it and can take something from it. The EP in general is not happy-go-lucky, but I’d like to believe it’s meaningful, and it’s an EP with hope, where there is a silver living to everything that I’ve written about.”
Jay Madera’s rousing new single “A House Divided” will inspire you to get out and vote – if you haven’t already. The Cincinnati singer/songwriter offers a hopeful urgency as he sings about greed, corporatism, freedom and equality and begs the question, “What do we need?” as Americans head to the polls. Released late last month, Madera now follows up the single with a video.
“The day that we finished up editing the video, I went out and voted,” Madera said by phone. “It’s a kinetic song. It literally got my butt off the couch and off to the polls. So, that made it an emotional moment.”
For the clip, Madera pieced together archived, royalty-free footage and donated the money he would’ve spent on a music video to nonprofits When We All Vote and Rock The Vote. Madera also ran donation campaigns for the track, raising over $300 for both organizations.
“The goal is to help get them donations,” he said. “They’ve been doing a lot of cool stuff – especially right here in Hamilton County – for Election Day, and that’s been crucial.”
The video itself combines vintage clips, ranging from everyday scenes to the historic moments that championed voting and racial equality. Video from famous protests – like the Selma to Montgomery Marches – and the title’s nod to Abraham Lincoln’s “House Divided Speech” further remembers the courageous movements that fought – and continue to fight – against voter suppression and racial injustice. After a summer full of similar demonstrations and persisting inequality, Madera connects past struggles to today’s, making his question of “What do we stand for?” ring even louder.
“The song is all about acknowledging our history and confronting our history, and using it to inform our current actions,” says Madera. “I wanted to connect that with our current-day struggle. Obviously, race is not our only issue, but it is a fundamental issue that is just as important today as it was back then.”
Another loud layer is Madera’s anti-corporate stance, as he belts verses about putting power in the hands of the people. Notably, the track was recorded in Cincinnati’s Gwynne Sound – housed in the historic headquarters of Proctor & Gamble.
“The very first lyric is, ‘We don’t need another strip mall/We don’t need another iPhone’… and here I was recording it in the headquarters of one of the largest corporations in the history of our modern society,” says Madera.
Photo Courtesy of Jay Madera
The clip and Madera’s style drive home a feeling of energetic nostalgia, heavily complimented with backing vocals from Cincinnati songstress Lauren Eylise and producer Mia Carruthers. For the instrumentals, Madera also stayed home-grown with University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music students.
“My song is rooted in the funk and soul tradition, and I was stylizing the song as more of a pop version of like a James Brown mixed with Elvis Costello. I was definitely taking inspiration from a Black art form, so I thought it was important to get Lauren’s voice on there,” he said. “She’s phenomenal – she has some of the best music coming out of the city. And my other backup singer was Mia, and their interplay on the song was incredible. The horns section was CCM students and one was a professor. So, it was very rooted in Cincinnati and the culture here.”
The song’s Cincinnatirepresentation was also intentional, Madera says, as the city not only marks where he’s from and lives, but is also an important battleground area come Election Day.
“It’s a political song in a swing state,” he said. “People that hear my song and come to my shows are all, politically, across the spectrum. This is where the politicians come right before the election. So, that’s something that was really cool that I got to record it here – and also being from here.”
Follow Jay Madera on Instagram for ongoing updates; find your polling place here to make your voice heard in 2020.
Knowing your own self worth can be an uphill struggle for many; we ignore our strongest supporters, deferring instead to our worst critics – the least of which is that overly callous voice in the back of our mind. As a lack of self-esteem or self-worth undermines everything we do, our conviction and confidence becomes brittle. “Ghost,” the latest track from Emma Jaye, serves as a canticle for those struggling with knowing their self worth. She sings about her experience with ghosting – a pervasive phenomenon well-known to most millenials – and focuses on the empowering positives, notably, the importance of asserting yourself and refusing to be led by the whims of somebody else because there could be a chance at love.
“It’s honestly so common and I don’t know a person that hasn’t been ghosted. But it’s cool because more people can relate [to the song],” says Emma Jaye. “It felt good to get that off my chest. It bothered me a bit and then after a few months my sentiments changed and I was like, so talk or don’t – up to you, I don’t care!”
“Ghost” sets the scene with a distinctive guitar riff reminiscent of the Police’s “Message in a Bottle” and Blue Oyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” albeit with a lighter, poppier edge. As the riff repeats, Emma Jaye dives straight in with the line, “Radio silence then you blow up my phone” – someone she thought had disappeared has returned, but Emma Jaye isn’t going to continue repeating a cycle in which she feels trapped. Her immediate retort sets that conviction in stone: “Hey, thanks for trying, but I’m good on my own.” She turns the page and starts a new chapter in her life, with a new value system and renewed confidence in herself as a person. “‘Ghost’ is about me not basing my worth on somebody else’s inability to see me. It’s like, well, if you don’t see me, I’m going to see myself. That’s the energy of the song,” she says.
Steady percussion ticks away like a clock, and Emma Jaye seems to be counting down the seconds until she can say what she needs to say for herself and then shut the door without spending more time on this person. “Everybody wants love and approval and acceptance and I get that, but I don’t think a lot of people are able to stand on their own and get approval for themselves,” says Emma Jaye. “It’s important to know your worth and what you bring to the table.” The lyric video visualizes her words in a multitude of fonts reminiscent of the distinctive neon-lit skyline of Los Angeles that Emma Jaye calls home.
The singer-songwriter wasn’t always so in tune with herself. Stepping out into the world of acting as a child, she previously appeared in the hit TV show Boardwalk Empire as Edith Thompson and in the film Spring Breakers. With some success as an actress under her belt she could have chosen to pursue that route; perhaps it might have seemed the most sensible. But the self-reliant Emma Jaye took a leap of faith to pursue a career in music. “I love acting… but singing is the thing that I was born to do,” she says.
She has a hard time pin-pointing when she realized music was her calling: she felt drawn to it most of her life and asked for music lessons at age ten, but set it aside in her early adolescence and didn’t start singing again until she sought music as a comfort for loneliness. “I can always count on people to let me down. I can remember when I was 14… I didn’t really have anyone. I would come home from school, lay on the ground and listen to music because that was all I had,” she says. “It was kind of sad, but also, it kept me company in a way. Music and singing started to become more of a lifeline.” From that experience, Emma Jaye eventually got more serious about her career. “I had this strange epiphany moment when I could see everything in retrospect,” she says. “That was the real ‘wow’ moment – I had always known, but it took time to really remember. A real part of life is remembering who you are; I think that’s the journey for every single human being.”
Emma Jaye is poised to find success in music as well as acting, releasing a string of singles that showcase her ability to dig deep and bare her soul – all to the to catchy tune of a pop beat. Starting off 2020 with the release of “Dumb,” an infectious track that incorporates an eerie, off-kilter nursery rhyme quality, and “Overtime,” in which she expresses overthinking about a relationship to the sonic backdrop of an atmospheric, trance-like beat, Emma Jaye has solidified her presence in the industry. The songs she creates are a direct reflection of where she is now: “It took a lot of time and meditation honestly. It took growing as a human being because as I grew, my art grew with it and that was a reflection of where I was at that time,” she says.
Like with her previous tracks, Emma Jaye uses “Ghost” as a sonic Trojan Horse – her deeply personal work gives a voice to 21st century existence, in a deceptively fun pop package. She unabashedly uses “Ghost” and her other pop-oriented singles to assert her presence in the world – not just as a musician but as a young woman navigating relationships.
In essence, “Ghost” provides a blueprint of support for anyone in a similar situation. Emma Jaye tells the listener that she understands why some of us let this type of behavior slide, but projects the reality that it doesn’t have to be this way as she details the freedom and confidence gained from knowing your self-worth and trusting your decisions.
“I’m very familiar with narcissists – they are basically emotional vampires, and they are very manipulative and gaslight you and will keep you down to keep you around and use you like a battery if you have that empathetic nature. A lot of the things that broke my heart fixed my vision. To that point, I wouldn’t change who I am,” Emma Jaye says. “I knew who I was going into this industry… Honestly, leaning into heartbreak is the way back home and that was music for me.”
Follow Emma Jaye on Facebook and Instagram for ongoing updates.
When LA-based pop singer-songwriter Anna Marie Scholfield, known by her stage name Skofee (a play on her last name), sat down in her room to create what would become her debut EP Polished (out September 21), she faced an intense creative block. Struggling to write for hours, she kept reaching for her Juul – and suddenly, the first line of the EP’s title track came to her. “I just kind of took a breath and sat back,” she remembers. “I just was so frustrated and also mad at myself for being addicted to nicotine.”
What poured out of her was a song about her shortcomings and the anxiety of wondering how people see her. “If I could be polished/If I didn’t lose shit/If I was more modest/Would you like that?” she asks against deep, loud, infectious guitar riffs by her collaborator Jack Demeo. “My hope with that song is that it hits in a light way and people can relate to it and cut themselves a little bit of slack when it comes to their inner dialogue,” she says.
In the video, Scholfield walks on a treadmill in different rooms of the house, a visual metaphor for the feeling of being stuck in place that motivated the song. Animator Louis Harboe overlaid it with sketches to give it a light, playful feel.
The rest of the EP conjures up ’90s pop, with R&B-inspired beats, catchy choruses, and climactic bridges. On opener “Fantomlimb,” she uses the well-documented phenomena of lingering sensation in amputated limbs as a metaphor to describe how our exes linger with us after breakups. “It’s just about the messy post-relationship stage where you’re maybe still seeing the person but it’s just not what it used to be, and you’re basically dealing with the pain of that while catering to the other person’s needs to make them feel fulfilled in the relationship,” she explains. The song shows off her angelic voice, with breathy high notes filling the chorus.
On “Spiderman,” a collaboration with songwriter Via Savage, she explores another side of breakups, addressing an ex with sensual lyrics and poppy melodies reminiscent of Lana Del Rey: “Do you think about the way my lips move when I say your name and your eyes lit up? Can you live without feeling my breath on the back of your neck when you wake up?”
“Crabapple” uses vocal layering to create an otherworldly effect as she paints scenes of climbing an apple tree, going to outer space, and cutting her own hair. “Bleach,” co-written with Scholfield’s friend McCall Kimball, combines ambient, futuristic-sounding instrumentals and electronic effects with poignant lyrics about witnessing a friend in a toxic relationship. “Bleach my eyes, sing me to sleep/Bleach my mind of all my dreams,” she sings in an eerily lullaby-like tune.
Overall, the EP is about “dysfunction and uncomfortable growth,” she says. “It’s an amalgamation of the last few years of my life.” She cites Lorde and Lennon Stella as influences, but having been in a folk trio in college, her goal with her first EP as a solo artist was to find her own sound. “It was important for me to make sure that what I was putting out was exactly what I wanted to say and exactly what I wanted it to sound like,” she says.
She wrote the songs using her keyboard then worked with two different producers on the album, Devan Welsh and Jamison Baken (known by his producer name Jameson), who is actually Scholfield’s roommate. “All of it was recorded in bedrooms,” she recalls. “We would just run back and forth between [them]. I loved the recording process, and I don’t produce for myself, but I love just being in the room while it’s happening and bouncing ideas back and forth with the different producers.”
She’s been working on a number of songs since, including an ode to a summer fling, recording from a studio she set up on her porch during quarantine. In the near future, she hopes to put out a full-length album. “I would like to have a really connected fan base,” she says. “I just want to keep evolving as a songwriter and as a musician, and I definitely want to be playing guitar on stage at some point.”
Moroccan-American singer Abir challenges common notions of what it means to be a woman of Arab descent, and her latest EP Heat embodies this defiance. The EP, a followup to 2018’s Mint, was born from Abir’s simultaneous interest in mainstream pop, R&B, and hip-hop as well as traditional Moroccan music, which she’d listened to growing up and later attending weddings and other events. She and producer Mick Schultz (Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson) used instruments like the bendir (a wooden-framed drum) and the oud (a pear-shaped, guitar-like string instrument) to create a sound that is new but classic.
In preparation for Heat, Abir took the initiative to learn more about music from Morocco and other parts of the Middle East; she cites Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum as one major inspiration behind the EP. “There was a lot of research and looking into different instruments — the Arab scale, the melodies, and looking at how I can bridge these two worlds,” she says. “It’s super thrilling to make them coexist.”
This merging of cultures is audible on every track on Heat, a title aiming to evoke the notion of combustion and “the beauty behind disasters,” she explains. The infectious, rhythmic “Pray for Me” combines familiar pop beats with traditional Moroccan instrumentals and dramatic harmonies. In “Searching,” mellow verses and dreamy echoes tell a relatable story of looking for light amid darkness. In “Inferno,” the first single off the EP, Abir’s voice soars and dips in a catchy chorus.
Abir’s music mirrors her own refusal to adhere to social conventions or be placed within a box based on her background. “I am an Arab Muslim woman, and I can also walk out here in a crop top and show up on stage,” she says. “I can still be Muslim, be Arab, be Moroccan, and live my life the way I want. The theme [of the EP] is empowerment and taking back that narrative. It’s important to share all perspectives so we don’t get narrow-minded; [there is no] one story of the Arab woman.”
Abir doesn’t always challenge stereotypes by speaking about them directly; she also does so just by singing about the complexities of her own life. “Sometimes I’m loud, but also sometimes, I put the identity to the back and just speak as a human,” she says. “I think it’s important to remember that when you speak about representation of women, at the end of the day, I’m just human and I have the same feelings as anyone could have. I have heartbreak. I feel like I want to be single. I feel the same shit that women all over the world have the ability to feel. I share my perspective, and I hope that it inspires other Arab women to share theirs so we have way more perspectives on what an Arab woman is outside of this shit you see on TV of Arab women being oppressed or Arab women being terrorists.”
The NYC-based artist also aims to make people rethink their assumptions about women in general. “Inferno,” for instance, was written with the intention of reversing certain gendered relationship scripts. In it, Abir sings to a suitor about not wanting to get into a relationship: “Sorry I don’t text back or answer your calls/I can’t be who you want, no, I don’t wanna play the part.”
“Women are always on the losing end, always seeming to be the ones that are heartbroken, or the guy doesn’t want to be with you because you want to be in a relationship but the guy’s not into it,” she says. “That’s not necessarily the truth. We’re in 2020. Women are heartbreakers. At least the people I’m around, my friends and family, we’re strong women who aren’t waiting on a guy to say if they’re ready for a relationship. We control whether a relationship gets serious or not. In this case, it was kind of that idea that it’s just not for me, playing this role of being a girlfriend at this moment.”
The video for the single was aimed at portraying powerful women, particularly Muslim women, as well as quite simply making “a fucking clusterfuck of shit,” as she puts it. Filmed in the Moroccan desert, the plot is supposed to be ambiguous so that people can read their own story into it. The one thing that was very intentional? “You just see women in an empowering light, and the men are an afterthought,” she says. It was also important to her that all the people she worked with on the video were of Arab descent, she adds.
She and Schultz are already working on her next project together, which continues her mission of melding Arab and American sounds. “We’ve come such a long way, and it’s a journey I’m so here for,” she says. “I want to be on this journey forever. We’re only going to keep learning more and more.”
While doing my preliminary research for this article, I double checked the meaning of the word “Brujita.” In Spanish, “Bruja” means witch, but a few websites suggested that “brujita” (“little witch”) can also be a term of endearment, like calling someone a scamp.
This is cute, but it’s also unsurprising that condemnation and affection come as two sides of the same coin for a word most frequently associated with the feminine. While a full etymology of the word “witch” in various cultures would necessitate a thesaurus-sized dissertation, for San Francisco’s Brujita, it is an undeniably fitting moniker.
Call it duality, call it contradiction, or call it the devil and (cyber) angel sitting on Brujita’s shoulders pushing around the pen while they write lyrics, but their first EP, Cyber Angel, is at turns bratty and sweet, harsh and soft. This is most pronounced in “come thru” and “vibez.” The latter is one of the EP’s strongest songs, kicking in hard after ten seconds with a beat that sounds like a toy xylophone got drunk at the club in 2007.
Y2k pastiche is a big pop trend right now, and one that is palpable in Cyber Angel, but without some of the single-minded obsession that can make it tiresome. Influences bounce around the EP with beats pulling from various eras: the backbeat on “better than me” sounds like the theme music for a 2010s keystroke game, while its opening line — as spoken by a Siri-like automated voice — makes me feel warm and fuzzy remembering when feeding curse words to text-to-speak programs was the height of comedy. The instrumental of “come thru,” however, would fit comfortably over a scene of intense eye contact in an ’80s romantic drama, which, strangely enough, works for Brujita’s softer side. While “vibez” is a harsh dressing down of a hookup who foolishly wants more, “come thru” is all yearning, a catalog of all the things you say when you don’t really care any longer about sounding desperate. “I just want the best for you and maybe that could be me,” Brujita almost-whispers on the latter. And yet, I couldn’t say I would be surprised if these two songs were written about the same person.
“Duality! Ouroboros!” I yell with my headphones on blast. And it’s the truth; everyone is someone’s second choice, even Brujita. But you’ve got to appreciate the bombast that permeates the majority of the EP. “get glad!” starts with a paraphrased version of a Kim Kardashian rant, replacing “maybe if you had a fucking business” with “maybe if you were mayor.” “Oh my god Mayor Brujita how do you do it?” Brujita raps later in the song. Brujita is creating a personal folklore here, from the concept of running a town of the “baddest villagers” to the self-aggrandizing and sexual bravado on track three, “better than me.”
Gassing yourself up is paramount to pop and hip-hop, so it makes sense for Brujita to do it here, but it makes even more sense taking in to account their appreciation for the hyper-feminine internet aesthetic and their identity as a non-binary womxn. Carving out space for yourself in music while identifying outside of the gender binary necessitates some bravado, but it’s easy to forget the bravery that lives beneath that.
Brujita doesn’t want you to get to caught up in singular notions of beauty or identity. “Just back it up,” they sing on the EP’s bonus track, “back it up!” “It doesn’t matter what you look like…I’m a lil’ tubby bitch and imma still back it up!” Brujita will make space for themselves, whether on the dance floor, in the town square, or in the heart of an unsuspecting booty call. Little witches, take note.
Nikki Vianna will always speak her truth. Her new song “One by One,” a soul-baring, genre-bending confessional, asserts both strength and vulnerability. “One by one, I show you how / I used to break the others down,” she snaps on the hook.
Her lyrics are razors, slicing and dicing, but her vocal deceives her. There is an incredible amount of pain seeping in her inflection in equal measure. “It’s okay to be vulnerable at times, but you should never, ever let someone mistake your kindness for weakness, like I’ve done in the past,” she tells Audiofemme. “I’ve learned from my past experiences. Hopefully, you don’t have to go through something I have, and I can save someone from some pain.”
She doesn’t need to get specific about her experiences, opting for her music to speak louder than she possibly could. But she does take a moment to speak candidly. “I’ve been making music since I was super young, and it’s been a long road in my musical journey. It was hard to find the right team, especially a team where everyone was on the same page, working towards the same goal,” she admits. “I mean, no matter how long the road is to find it, when you do, it’s magical. The hard work is never done but when everyone gets it, gets who you are as a person, artist, and all that… it brings an aura of peace that my voice is being heard.”
With more than one million loyal monthly Spotify listeners, and millions of streams, Vianni’s voice is finally being heard. Previous endeavors in the rearview mirror, including an early record deal she signed instead of attending Juilliard, Vianna hooked up with Atlantic Records in late 2018. Her first offering was the slow-boiling “Done,” setting a new artistic standard later embodied with the Matoma-produced “When You Leave.”
Eighteen months later, she has already witnessed steady, marked growth to her artistry, as well as in her personal journey. “I would describe my growth as an artist and a person as soulful and meaningful. Don’t ever get caught up in the hype of something,” she advises. “Always continue to stay true to who you really are and always be grateful.”
Vianna tipped her hat to her Italian roots earlier this year with a song called “Mambo,” which samples “Mambo Italiano” ─ written by Bob Merrill and released by Rosemary Clooney in 1954. Since its release, it has been remixed by GATTÜSO, Herve Pagez, and Leandro Da Silva.
Such adeptness, sliding between genres like a chameleon, runs in her blood. Vianna’s great grandmother Christina Agostinelli was a prolific classical singer back in Italy, and those gifts can be traced to Vianna’s mother and then to her. One could argue musical talents are certainly hereditary, or at least, “God gives us our gifts for a reason,” as Vianna puts it.
Vianna, also classically trained herself, celebrates her heritage and upbringing while also continuing to push boundaries every step of the way. She could have very easily pursued a similar career trajectory, but she found herself entranced by pop music instead. “The training gives such a great foundation for a musician, but I always gravitated towards the music I am doing now,” she says, noting such artists as Whitney Houston being vital to her work.
She continues sharpening her songwriting and honing her particular brand of pop, finding great creative freedom through her many collaborations. To date, she has worked with the likes of Cash Cash, Flo Rida, and Poo Bear, among others, and each meet-up gives her further agency to express and be free. “My favorite times in the studio are when I’ve been going through something, and then your friend will play a chord and the melody and lyrics just flow from my lips so easily and you make the beautiful record so fast,” she says. “I feel like my favorite songs I’ve made came super easy and quick like we were not trying. It was natural and not forced.”
With songs like “Mambo” and “One by One” in her arsenal, Vianna eyes a body of work to come. “[These] two records show [my] many sides and the many things I’ve been through. I am not a cookie cutter kinda girl, so my music will show that. My records will always have something that ties them back to who I am as an artist but I don’t like to be put in a box.”
Trials and tribulations tested her, but she is not broken. She is more self-assured today than ever. “I’ll never give up. I will always stay true to who I am, always work hard, and always be grateful. With God’s grace, I believe things that are meant to be will be.”
Follow Nikki Vianna on Instagram for ongoing updates.
Gatlin Thornton is on a spiritual journey, one you can follow along with through her music.
The Nashville based artist, who goes by the stage name Gatlin, describes herself as a “toned down Maggie Rogers,” layering modern pop production with folk lyrics, her ethereal voice draped over mystifying melodies of soft, thumping drums and guitar.
Gatlin walked a winding road trying to decipher what genre suited her style best. She initially gravitated toward Christian Contemporary, inspired by years she spent singing in church choir. In high school, a cowboy boot-wearing phase heralded a shift toward country music. Now, the 21-year-old’s newfound love is that of modern folk-pop, a niche she discovered upon moving to Nashville, a city that’s had a profound impact not only on her musical direction, but her personal journey.
Gatlin relocated from her native Orlando, Florida to Nashville in 2017 to study religion and the arts at Belmont University, but after two years, she quit and became a songwriter full time. She got a taste of the city’s pop scene when she began working with a diverse range of songwriters, proving to the longtime pop snob that she doesn’t have a distaste for all pop music – in fact, she has a gift for creating her own style of the genre. “That time in my life, I learned the most because I was writing with someone new every day,” she tells Audiofemme via phone interview.
Coming from a Christian background, stepping into the diverse Nashville culture broadened Gatlin’s horizons, causing her to challenge the conservative ideals she was raised on. “I got out of my little bubble and I realized that things aren’t so black and white. I went through this huge doubting phase. I am a Christian, but it looks a lot different,” she professes. “It’s a spiritual journey now. I’m trying to figure out a lot of stuff and I feel like that comes through in some of my lyrics.” She addresses this point head on in her song “Curly Hair” as she sings, “and I love Jesus, but he’s busy upstairs, and I’m a first world nothing.”
“I think everyone’s on their journey, and growing up super conservative Christian, it wasn’t okay that it was a journey, you had to have it all figured out,” she continues. “Where I land, I still think God is real, I just don’t think everything is so black and white, I think it’s pretty gray and it’s different for each person. I think I’m trying to figure out the normal things people believe as far as religion and Christians go. I don’t have an answer for literally any of it – [I’m] just figuring out as I go what is true for me.”
Gatlin takes listeners on this journey, exemplified in her latest track, “I Think About You All the Time.” Co-written with friend Victoria Bigelow, the song is based on Gatlin’s experience being a relationship where feelings developed on her end, but not her partner’s. The video captures this sentiment through a dark red hue cast over scenes of Gatlin surrounded by friends as they enjoy life, yet she’s lost in a daze of sadness and confusion.
“With this relationship, I literally could not enjoy parties with my friends, because my mind was trying to figure this relationship out,” she describes. “Then the moments when I would be alone was when I would freak the fuck out, and so I wanted to feel that juxtaposition.” Gatlin took control of the situation and told the other person how she felt, which liberated her from the toxic dynamic. “I realized there’s more power in admitting that you have feelings if you do. It’s always looked at as weak, but me admitting ‘I think about you all the time,’ there was so much power in that,” she expresses. “It was a very healing process.”
Gatlin is currently working on an EP, planning to drop each song as a single throughout the year leading up to the EP’s release. As she walks the path that’s shaping her identity, Gatlin will continue to take fans along for the ride through her art. “I’ve learned that God is love and it’s so much more of an emphasis of that. We are supposed to love others,” she says of the most important discovery she’s made thus far. “I physically look different and also my insides look different every six months because I’m 21, I’m in such a changing time of my life.”
When Caitlyn Smith learned that a dying star emits its fullest, brightest light before ceasing to exist, she took that idea and ran with it, creating a dozen tracks that challenged her to be fiercely open-hearted. Calling it Supernova, Smith wants you to feel the same chills listening to her sophomore album as she did when she learned about the cosmic phenomenon.
The new album follows her 2018 debut, Starfire, which painted Smith as a confident woman, emotional soul and brilliant storyteller – a compelling package she carries into Supernova, where she turns her true-to-life experiences of marriage, becoming a mom for the second time while touring harder than ever and dealing with the loneliness and anxiety of life on the road into song. With an album that is soulful, sultry and at times stormy, Smith tells her story with a voice that is grand enough to command a Broadway stage, yet later so gentle she could sing you to sleep.
“I really wanted to push myself with this album, to try and be more vulnerable, to dig more into the stories that I’ve really lived and experienced,” Smith shares with Audiofemme. In order to tell her story as vulnerably as she envisioned, Smith had to look inward, going on a soul-cleansing journey of meditation, therapy and “personal excavation.”
“I really leaned into trying to become a better version of myself,” she reveals. Part of this process was changing the narrative in her brain to stop the lies and negative thoughts that manifested into anxiety, a sensitive, yet universal subject matter she channels into “I Can’t.” “I wanted to tell this story because I know I’m not the only one that feels this way,” she says of the song that shares her perspective of living with anxiety and depression as an artist. “There’s a lot of different ways that we can lie to ourselves, which then creates anxiety and this stress narrative in your brain. Changing the lens into gratefulness can really change your entire outlook.”
After spending years working as a staff songwriter penning songs for other artists, including Meghan Trainor’s chart-topping duet with John Legend, “Like I’m Gonna Lose You,” and Garth Brooks’ “Tacoma,” Smith admits that it took “a little practice” to tell such personal stories about her own life in the writing room. The continuous act of songwriting helped push her out of her comfort zone, the singer categorizing the roughly 70 songs she wrote for the project by emotion. But there was a distinct deciding factor as to whether or not a track would make the cut.
“If a song didn’t give me chills at some point, I didn’t want to put it on this record,” she affirms. “I wanted people to be able to truly feel these songs.” One particular song that she feels in her bones is the title track. Inspiration struck as she was watching her one-year-old son run around the back yard and she was suddenly overcome with an “overwhelming moment” realizing how quickly her life was moving by, witnessing her parents growing older and her two young children growing more independent each day. She took this insightful idea to co-writer Aimee Mayo to create what she calls “the ultimate emo song” on the record, both reduced to tears as they discussed how rapidly they were moving through time.
“We got this vision of a supernova. We were thinking about all these tiny little details and moments of life, and for some reason it felt right to then compare it to this big, beautiful, bright blast of a supernova,” Smith begins, awe apparent in her voice. “That’s how we need to be living our lives every day – in this full, beautiful expression of love and light.’”
They transformed this grand concept into a song that touches on fleeting moments – the innocence of childhood, growing up and moving away from home – and what its like to long to feel their gravity again. “Time is like a shooting star / A supernova in the dark / You’d do anything to make it last / But it all goes by so fast,” she pristinely serenades.
“[‘Supernova’] almost stated with one word the growth and the more intense expression of myself that’s put into this album,” Smith says. “It seemed like the perfect next step in my artistry.”
Where Starfire built the framework of the artist she was destined to become, Supernova sees Smith stepping into it. Smith proves the strength of her own magnetic force when she proclaims, “Doesn’t everyone cry when they look at the stars / And doesn’t everyone try way too goddamn hard,” in the album’s closing number “Lonely Together.” “There’s something about looking at the stars that makes me feel so connected with everybody else. We’re all under this same amazing sky on this big rock hurling through space, all just trying to navigate this little life that we have and all of these big emotions,” she expresses. “It all is just way too fascinating to not write about and love.”
Supernova is set for release on Friday (March 13). Smith will perform two album release shows on May 7 at Brooklyn Bowl Nashville and her home state of Minnesota at First Avenue in Minneapolis on May 9. She’ll join Maren Morris’ RSVP Tour as an opening act in June.
Ahead of her debut album, Cincinnati songstress Molly Sullivan shares her warmly earnest love track, “Golden.” The single marks the first of her album rollout, which will arrive later this year.
With tender keys and hauntingly soothing vocals, Sullivan offers a unique take on the quintessential love song. “Golden” also marks her first piano-driven single – making the switch from guitar – and one of the first songs she wrote after finding sobriety.
We chatted with the artist about her new single, upcoming album, and more. Take a listen to “Golden” and read our Q&A with Molly Sullivan below. Also, catch her performance at MOTR Pub with Soften‘s Brianna Kelly and Columbus band Nothin’ on Saturday (Feb. 22) at 9 p.m.
AF: Congrats on your new single! Tell me a little bit about the story behind “Golden.”
MS: Thank you very much! “Golden” is a love song – two people just runnin’ around bein’ taken with each other. That’s really it.
AF: As your first single this year, are you planning on releasing any more singles or a full-length project this year?
MS: Working on finishing up a full length. It will be my first cohesive album! I think I will be releasing another single or two before I have the whole work available. I’m not attached to any labels or pressures beside my own at this point – a blessing and a curse – so I have the flexibility to kind of do whatever I want. I’m not making music to make money or anything like that so I find myself doing things more for self-fulfillment than anything.
AF: Are there any Cincinnati artists you could see yourself collaborating with?
MS: Well sure! I have been super lucky to have such a crazy talented roster of folks who I have or am currently collaborating with. The current band line up is Alessandro Corona on drums, [WHY?’s] Matt Meldon on guitar, and [WHY’s] Doug McDiarmid on bass. Artists who have loaned their talents to these new recordings include [WHY?’s] Josiah Wolf, Kate Wakefield, [Soften’s] Brianna Kelly, Johnny Rusza, Jess Lamb, Sara Hutchinson, and Victoria Lekson.
AF: Was the songwriting or recording process for “Golden” any different than your previous singles?
MS: It was one of the first songs I wrote in my new home, one of the first songs I wrote on piano, and one of the first songs I’ve written since I quit drinking. My roommate and collaborator extraordinaire Alessandro would walk in the house and get excited hearing me actually work at trying to write this song and to learn the piano better. Eventually, once I had gotten it down pretty well, he set up a few mics in the dining room and started recording. It’s been incubating for about a year now and I still have doe eyes for whom it is written.
AF: Do you have any local shows coming up?
MS: Yes! I am playing with two very special acts at MOTR Pub on Saturday (Feb. 22). [Soften’s] Brianna Kelly is a gorgeous singer/songwriter from Cincinnati. She will be playing a set with a full band – also, check out her project [Soften Forever]! Nothin’ will [also] be coming down from Columbus to shake things up a little bit with their rock ‘n’ roll “anxiety pop.”
Ahead of her forthcoming EP, Bershy dropped off her latest single, “Sixty Seconds.” The Cincinnati-based pop singer wrote the song in a heated moment of relationship doubt.
“I wrote that song in like 15 minutes after what I can only describe as an existential love crisis,” she told AudioFemme. “I have now been with my partner for like a year, but when we first got together I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m so in love with you, nothing will ever go wrong.’ And we had our first fight and I was like, ‘Do I even love this person? What do I want out of this?'”
With the new track, Bershy remembers the value of taking a minute to think things through and accepts that moments of obscurity and self-doubt are a part of relationships.
“We’re humans, having a squabble, it’s ok,” she said. “‘Give me sixty seconds’ sounded better than, ‘I need a minute,’ but that’s basically what it is.”
The new track also marks the singer/songwriter’s second dive into the pop genre, following her single, “Say Fire.”
“I’m like in this weird, experimental phase,” Bershy said. “I’ve been doing folk music since I was like 15 and then switched to ‘dream-pop’ last summer.”
With two breezy pop singles under her belt, she’s currently working with Cincinnati producer Mike Landis to drop one more song, which will be followed with a four-track wrap-up EP, arriving this spring.
“A lot of the songs are about relationships as a whole,” she said. “I also think [that] being a queer person informs how I think of culture and politics. So, I get a lot of inspiration from that, but love is so easy to write about!”
Following up her debut solo EP, Views From The Cut, Aziza Love will release her debut solo album, Bare Soul, later this month.
“Over these years I’ve watched myself choose everything and everyone else first… from people I’ve worked with, intimate relationships, family, friends, lovers,” the former TRIIIBE songstress wrote in an Instagram post announcing the upcoming project. “I lost myself in the search for their happiness. Lost myself in the promises of reciprocity. No more.”
Along with the album’s cover art and release date, Aziza has also shared Bare Soul‘s tracklist. The 10-song album, which is expected to drop on Friday, December 13, will include her previously released song “Smooth Criminal.”
“Bare Soul is a call to action, a reminder to be authentic… Bare Soul is me,” Aziza wrote in another post, calling the project a “declaration of heart thoughts” and her “story, raw and uninhibited.”
Aziza has previously teased snippets of “Baby Steps” via Instagram, which will also land on the upcoming album. Former collaborator Josh Jessen is featured in the record on “True Love,” which was used in Aziza’s short film, Phoenix Rising: Ashes To Ashes.
“Without any formal background in filmmaking, but a relentless need to express my experience, I took on the challenge to learn how to navigate Adobe software to make my visions come to life,” she wrote of the visual on YouTube. “My hope is to create space for black and brown members of the LGBTQA+ community to express genuine emotion, express love, to dance and smile and frown and be free and angry and joyful all in a beautiful way.”
The announcement of the album follows Aziza’s short film and her appearance in standout track “Anytime,” from earlier this year.
TRIIIBE recently won Hip Hop Artist of the Year and Artist of the Year at the 2019 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards. Aziza contributed to the Cincinnati-based group’s latest album, III AM What III AM, and performed at Bunbury Music Festival. Aziza also made a guest appearance on “Anytime,” the standout track from Oski Isaiah’s recent album F*ck A Job.
Find the tracklist and cover art for Aziza Love’s upcoming album, Bare Soul, below.
Last month, Sara-Danielle released her sophomore album, Healing. The 6-track project finds the Canadian artist excelling in her personally-carved out genre – a niche that she’s coined “Ginger-ale-pop” – atop smooth instrumentals.
The project seeks to personify duality, as Sara-Danielle’s lyrics live between several points of contrast. She sings introspectively about her shortcomings and her triumphs, and expresses a romance that is both her anchoring muse and an intangible pleasure. The contrasting attitudes of confidence and unsureness, in both her own self-examination and her relationship, are refreshingly honest and extremely relatable.
Healing starts off on a mixed note of vulnerability and strength. “With You” finds Sara-Danielle expressing the strength that she’s garnered from a relationship. Seemingly romantic in nature, the bond keeps her grounded during times of self-doubt. However, the track also explores the paradox of allowing vulnerability – in this case, opening oneself to love – to be a catalyst of strength.
Sara-Danielle remains introspective throughout the next song, “Flawless,” in which she explores her own shortcomings. Her lyrics bask in self-awareness and honesty as she is able to identify what she wishes she could be and what she isn’t, finally questioning if her own introspection is selfish.
“Why am I so angry with myself, the others / Why am I so selfish, caught up in my own world,” she sings. “I wanna be good / I wanna be flawless / But it’s always all about me.”
She becomes more confident in her self-analyzing lyrics on “Sometimes,” where she expresses losing herself in a relationship – or in her own head – but always being able to find her way back. On “Waterfall,” the album’s closer, Sara-Danielle again plays with the duality of relationships, singing “Our love is like a waterfall / Falling, dripping, but never-ending,” she sings in the chorus. “I want to hold you so strong, but you don’t want me for that long / I want to make you happy, but everything else seems better than me.”
On this final Healing track, Sara-Danielle not only examines a “never-ending” love that remains out of reach, but also returns to her own insecurities, exacerbated by the unstable romance. This remains a theme throughout the album, where she bounces back-and-forth between analyzing herself and her romance, finally settling on the intersecting subject of self-love.
“Healing reflects on these past two years, as I’ve been having rough times and trying to heal, to get better,” she told AudioFemme. “It’s about finding light in the darkness and trying to stay with it. It’s about learning to be gentle with yourself.”
This goal extends through her sonic choices, which equally compliment her singing style and gently appease the listeners’ ear. Feeling both extremely personal and widely relatable, Sara-Danielle’s sophomore effort proves to be a courageously vulnerable album.
Atlanta-via-Brooklyn’s singer-songwriter Victoria Blade is one of my favorite discoveries of the year. Blending classically trained vocals with a carefree, indie-pop vibe, sweet melodies, and lyricism that makes her songs feel more like a journal entry than a track meant to be shared with the world, Blade has an effortless way of captivating her audience, whether on tape, on the stage, or on TV (or wherever you binge your favorite shows).
After covering her intimate debut LP, Lo-Fi Love Songs, I was thrilled to check back in with Victoria and share the story behind her newest music video, “Moving Song.”
AF: I’m so happy to have you back in the column, this time with the music video for “Moving Song.” The music video feels so much like a home video; what made you decide to take it in such an intimate, homey direction? Did you reference any old home videos before shooting? How did you film it?
VB: I wanted to capture the lo-fi, intimate vibe of the album, which was recorded straight to cassette tape and recorded in my apartment in Brooklyn and Atlanta. It felt like an old camcorder would be the perfect way to capture a soft, nostalgic look. My friends at Brand Red studios took the idea and ran with it. My director Ryan Simmons captured the perfect “Dad holding a camcorder” style with awkward zooms a plenty. We wanted to tell the story of me moving to Atlanta, exploring the beautiful city and making it home.
AF: You’ve been in Atlanta for a little over a year now; have you settled in and made yourself at home yet, or does it feel like another stop on the way to a brand new place?
VB: Atlanta is an unexpected gift. It does feel like home although I’m still not used to the heat! It is hard starting over. I honestly feel a little exhausted from the energy it takes. I love Atlanta and it feels like the perfect home right now. I’ve learned to stay really flexible when it comes to my expectations of life and the future. I didn’t know when I wrote “Moving Song” that it was going to become a bit of an anthem for my life, constantly exploring new places, people and skills. But right now I’m here and I’m all in.
AF: You and your husband have lived all over the US in just a few short years. Do you think the concept of “home” is more of a place at this point, or a feeling? What is “home” to you?
VB: Home to me is being with my husband and building our lives together. I think I’ve come to expect a lifestyle of adventure. I really crave being out of my comfort zone. When I start to get comfortable, I get a little bored. I love doing new things. Going to places I’ve never been and seeing the world from a different perspective makes me come alive.
AF: Can you talk a bit about what inspired “Moving Song”? The idea of picking up and moving your entire life is so overwhelming (at least it is to me!), but the song feels very laid-back and relaxed. Was that your overall feeling when you were moving (and writing the song), or was it something you could look back on and see how everything fell into place?
VB: I love that you picked up on that contrast. The song is so chill and moving is so NOT! I love “Moving Song” because it perfectly sums up my excitement and fatigue from this surprising, ever-changing journey I’ve been on for the last 10 years as a working actor and musician. But I wasn’t intentionally thinking of any of that while writing it; it just came out organically.
AF: Let’s talk a bit about the DIY nature of not only the music video but your record, and the record label you and your husband run, Already Dead Tapes. Everything you do feels so intimate, like it’s a tiny bit of you put on tape or film and shared with the world. Do you think your DIY mindset and the involvement it requires creates that intimacy? Do you ever wish you could take a step back from it?
VB: That’s a great question! Yes, the intimacy comes from the DIY nature of our label, Already Dead, and our lifestyle in general. I really do believe it’s usually best to figure out how to do things for your self. However, that effort and constant vulnerability can be exhausting. My goal would be to have an ever-expanding team of people to help with things like PR, booking, recording, producing etc. So the creative side can be where I spend most of my focus. I also just really need a vacation. Ha!
AF: Where do you look for inspiration when it comes to not only writing your music, but shooting music videos and running a company?
VB: I love that question. I find inspiration in collaborating with others. It’s really fun to organize with great creative people and make something out of nothing. When I have a clear vision for a project, that inspires to me to see it realized. I also have started setting goals and deadlines for creative projects and that inspires me to keep them! I really admire people who just do the hard work of getting their ideas out and sharing their creative vision with the world consistently. That takes so much intentional work and focus but the process can be so rewarding. I think I come alive when I’m really focused on a big project that requires a lot of problem solving.
AF: Last one! What’s coming next? You’ve got a beautiful record and a sweetly nostalgic music video; will there be any tour dates?
VB:I’m playing Monday Sept 2nd at Mother Bar in ATL! I would love to plan a Southeast tour for later this year. I have been busy shooting on different TV shows as an actor and I’m constantly auditioning, so that has been my focus for the last few months, but I plan to get some more show dates in the books soon! I also have a bunch of songs ready for a second album I will record next year!
Follow Victoria on Facebook and stream Lo-Fi Love Songson Spotify now.
Like many, I sat down to listen to emerging UK pop artist Mabel’s debut full-length High Expectations with just that, high expectations. The songstress comes from remarkable music industry stock, the daughter of Swedish singer-songwriter and rapper Neneh Cherry and British songwriter and producer Cameron McVey, known for his work with prolific artists like Massive Attack and Portishead. Her personal stock has been steadily rising as well: she toured as the opener for Harry Styles and has had a handful of Platinum selling singles since releasing her first on Soundcloud in 2015. So it’s gotta be good, right? Unfortunately, no.
Perhaps the best thing that could be said of this release is the production itself: the tracks sparkle as pinnacle examples of what pop music should sound like. And yet, that’s part of the problem. This record sounds like Mabel makes music she thinks she’s supposed to make, instead of espousing any original sound or artistry. Under the guise of these polished pop products are stale lyrics and derivative slang. “FML” feels like a bargain-brand Kali Uchis, cringing with forced turns of phrase like “Got me wishing I was taking off clothes with you / two weeks and I felt so close to you.” She rests heavily on the laurels of millennial / Gen-Z slang: take track “Mad Love” for example, which tries to earn points by repeating the phrase “All night, give me mad love” over a stock pop backing, resulting in a track that sounds like one you’d only hear in an Uber. Similarly there’s “OK (Anxiety Anthem),” hopelessly topical in subject matter, the modern youthful predilection for anxiety and depression in the face of the world’s woes and our lack of intimate connectivity. She sings “It’s okay to not be okay” over and over in a way that’s desperate for viral shares but lacks any true substance.
The dim highlight of the selection of songs is “Trouble,” if only because it felt fresh to use a matronly phrase like “Looking for trouble” in the context of a hip pop song. The entire album’s lack of originality is enough to instill a sense of anxiety; has the heightened visibility offered to otherwise lackluster talent through Instagram and similar outlets destined us for an epidemic of cloned creatives? The same way Urban Outfitters gives every teen and twenty-something the means to dress like Billie Eillish, High Expectations makes me fear we’re fated to a musical selection limited to a bunch of knock-off Ariana Grandes.
Pop/reggae outfit The Big Takeover premieres their retro music video for “Shy” today. In the Dino Davaros-directed clip, the New York-based band star as guests of a 70’s late-night show, where they perform their latest single. The new video comes as the band hits the summer festival circuit in support of their forthcoming record, slated for release in the fall.
Frontwoman Nee Nee Rushie moved from Jamaica to the U.S. 16 years ago and has since shared the stage with legends like The Wailers, Pete Seeger, and Sister Sparrow. Here, she talks about what’s next for The Big Takeover, the move that changed her life, and the highlights of her career so far.
AF: Tell me a little bit about your song “Shy.” Did the idea come from a personal experience?
NNR: No, actually. I was going through a hard time in my relationship at the time when I wrote it. I found it therapeutic to write about a fictional scenario that was completely different from mine. It is about a girl that is in love with her best friend. He may be in love with her too, but he has a girlfriend.
AF: What made you want to go with the retro late-night show theme for your music video?
NNR: The song has a retro pop vibe that pairs perfectly with the retro late-night show theme. We knew we wanted to do a performance video, but the idea for a retro late-night show came from the director.
AF: What age did you move to the US and did you move for your music career?
NNR: I moved here when I was 15 years old. I moved to attend college. I went to college in New Paltz, NY. That is where I met my bandmates and started the band. Looking back, I realize that if I had not moved to the states and went to college where I went, The Big Takeover would have never happened. So in a way, my music career was directly linked to my move to the US.
AF: With three albums out already, what have been some highlights of your music career?
NNR: We actually have four albums out already. Our very first album called Following Too Close was released back in 2008. We sold 1000 copies of it and never made any more copies. It is on our “to do” list to re-release it online or something. Over the years, we have had the opportunity to play alongside many artists that I consider to be legends: Toots and the Maytals, Beres Hammond, Sister Nancy, The Slackers, The Skatalites… When we get these opportunities we use it as a learning experience. We have ventured out on tours across the US and have been included on prestigious festival line ups such as Mountain Jam, Burlington Jazz Festival, Musikfest and more. It is also amazing to watch our fanbase gradually expand over the years.
AF: What can you tell us about The Big Takeover’s upcoming album?
NNR: We always feel that our upcoming release is the best work we have ever produced. This time around, we feel very comfortable and confident in saying that. We branched out and got outside producers and engineers to work on this album. Usually, we do it all independently and homegrown. We were able to work with David Baron, for example. He has produced and recorded songs and albums for people like Meghan Trainor, The Lumineers and Lenny Kravitz. He produced and recorded two songs on our upcoming record. We also have new members in the band that have been breathing new life into our writing process and taking on producer responsibilities. I love all the music on this record. We are experimenting with new sounds and styles and taking bigger risks. I think people who do not know us will enjoy it, and people who are anticipating the release will be pleased.
AF: When will the album be released?
NNR: We look forward to a fall release.
AF: How has your tour been so far?
NNR: We often take on national runs in the summer. This summer we decided to take a step back from that and focus on finishing the record and doing as much media appearances as possible. We have already done some amazing festival performances and look forward to the upcoming ones later in the season.
Denver’s Kissing Party just released their most recent album, Mom & Dad, and a new video for single “Jimmy Dean.” The self-proclaimed “slop pop” band is made up of vocalist Deirdre Sage, guitarists Gregory Dolan and Joe Hansen, bassist Lee Evans and drummer Shane Reid.
“Jimmy Dean” was written by Deirdre “about having to fight for basic rights, recognition and safety and the narratives created about womanhood that keep pushing us to really unhappy places,” she said in a press release.
Here, Kissing Party’s Greg talks about their latest album, Mom & Dad, “Jimmy Dean,” the next album they’re already working on and what’s to come.
AF: In your own words, what is “slop pop?”
GD: Well the word “indie,” that every band on the planet is described as these days, is really tired and meaningless at this point. If you Google “indie bands” it’s like Arcade Fire and The Killers and shit and I don’t really think bands that are selling out stadiums on major record labels should be defined as indie, but that is the world we live in. Anyway, we figure if we’re gonna be labeled as something, it should be a label of our choosing. Someone once described us as “princess pop trash music” which I think is accurate but is too long and doesn’t rhyme, so I would say listen to our new album – that is “slop pop.”
AF: Can you tell me what current national or personal triggers inspired “Jimmy Dean?”
G: A local trigger was Deirdre was looking in my gramma’s fridge (whose nickname is Jimmy Dean) and my gramma was embarrassed by the contents and told her “I’ll leave you to your misery,” which inspired the chorus and song title. As far as other inspirations, I think it’s kinda Deirdre’s reaction to all The Handmaid’s Tale-type shit that’s going on these days.
AF: What were your main points of inspiration for the songwriting of your new album Mom & Dad?
G: Songs come from somewhere – I don’t know where. It could be something that happened to me when I was 12 or 26 or last week. It’s heartbreaks and regrets you carry around with you that come out when they do and you put them to music that you can dance to. I know what they are about and what they mean to me, but would rather leave it up to the listener for their own interpretation.
Courtesy of Kissing Party
AF: Does the title track, “Mom & Dad,” reflect heavily on the album’s meaning as a whole?
GD: I don’t think so. It’s not a concept album about my mom and dad [laughing]. There are several songs on the album written by the 12 year old brat in me. The lyrics “nothing left to spend, nothing left we had…mom and dad, these things don’t comfort me,” the “things” that don’t comfort being mom and dad. I hate to try and define or explain the songs though because I think it cheapens them.
AF: What are you guys currently working on?
GD: I’m trying to gather up all of our unreleased songs and rarities to put on an album called Unmade Beds that, hopefully, we can release by the end of the year.
AF: You just released the video for “Jimmy Dean” – do you have any other visuals on the way?
GD: Yes, the next video we are gonna put out is for a song called “Problems or Dreams” that I wish I would’ve put on the original album but is on the deluxe version.
AF: What’s something you want your fans to know about you that they may not?
GD: I don’t really want anybody to know shit about us [laughing]. That being said, we are fans of our fans or anybody who gets and understands what we are doing, so we want them to know we love them…Patrick. Oh and also there is a little cove on a beach off the Santa Cruz boardwalk, if someone could send us a video of themselves listening to Kissing Party in there that would be lovely.
Cincinnati’s princess of pop, Princess Tiana, dropped off her Going Places LP, following up the project’s previously released singles “Fallback” and “Trip.” The sugary-sweet 7-track record plays up Tiana’s vocal range over danceable beats.
Going Places is Tiana’s debut album and follows up her 2017 Believe It EP and her remixed version of Ella Mai’s “Shot Clock,” released a few months ago.
“It feels great to finally accomplish my first project,” she tells AudioFemme. “It was a learning experience on what to do for the next project! Definitely motivated me to work harder. But overall, I’m happy and relaxed and very appreciative of everyone that supported me.”
Princess T gets the ball rolling from the first song of the LP, “Ewyw,” then carries her pop-laden energy throughout its entirety, with the help of futuristic beats and features from My Name Is Zi and 3LetterzNUK. The second track,”Creepin’,” stands out as Tiana changes things up, experimenting with some old-school Rihanna vibes. She gets into her sexy bag over the hard-hitting, yet sultry, Ncognito beat, singing, “I want you to meet me in the hotel lobby / Don’t tell nobody/ Tonight we’re getting sloppy/ I promise not to make a sound / The way you push up on me got me aroused /And I’m liking what you liking, watch me throw it around.” Around the 1:30 mark, rapper My Name Is Zi cuts in to lay down his bars. “You told me that you was a rider / Get in the back of the slider / The way that you hittin’ them notes / I thought that you was Mariah,” he spits.
“Night Time” returns to undeniable pop, with an assist from rapper 3LetterzNUK. The song flows for easy listening and summer-y vibes. Previously released “Fallback” and “Trip” remain album strong points due to their infectiously catchy hooks.
On “Good Times,” Tiana keeps things light and upbeat. The album closes on another highlight, “No Worries,” which boasts a strong hook and an electronic beat that compliments Princess T’s high-ranging vocals.
With the album and four accompanying visuals out, Tiana is already back at work recording her sophomore project.
“I actually went ahead and moved on to the next project that I’m working with Ncognito on, and just marketing Going Places while I work silently on what’s new,” she says.
The first time I ever had the chance to see Pip the Pansy perform, she was known by another name and draped in flowers: her body, her microphone stand, her keyboard. She was a character from a Greek myth that had traveled through the ages to grace us with her song, and she captivated the audience with an imperceptible magic.
Combining haunting piano melodies with fuzzy synth and driving rhythms – and the occasional flute solo – Pip the Pansy dispels every notion I ever had about pop music and replaces it with a lilting, quirky melodicism. With the release of her latest single, “Siren Song,” I can’t help but find myself even more completely under her spell. Read on as we deep-dive into her creative process, her collaboration with her husband (Atlanta singer-songwriter Sam Burchfield), and her take on timeless lessons found in ancient literature.
AF: Thanks so much for sitting down with me! You are one of the most uniquely creative artists I’ve ever encountered; how did you find your way to music?
Pip: Gah, thank you! Ya know, it never really crossed my mind growing up that I would pursue a career in music. I had taken some piano lessons as a kid, started playing flute in the 4th grade, took some chorus classes in grade school, and dabbled in musical theatre, but it was never really my main focus; it was a hobby. I put a lot more energy into the visual arts, I would say.
I got my degree in photography and figured I would end up doing something in that field but everything shifted pretty quickly after I graduated college. I remember applying for photography jobs right after college and feeling sort of blue about it. I love photography so much — it is one of my passions — but I had a gnawing feeling that if I pursued only photography, I would be neglecting a lot of my other interests and strengths.
I had sort of toyed with the idea of writing songs, but nothing serious. My good friend Gemille encouraged me to give it a real effort, so I figured why not? Having a musical persona seemed like a good way to combine all my passions into one little package. There’s a visual aspect to it, an opportunity to connect with people, a little bit of theatre in a way, lots of traveling… I liked the job description and decided to give it a shot. It helped that I had always kept some musical hobby in my back pocket and I grew up with a fairly musical family; everyone sings or plays an instrument — not professionally — but still, it was always around me. Looking back, I should have known I would end up doing something like this.
AF: You combine such stunning visuals with music that really draws listeners into another world, and it verges on performance art, in my opinion. Can you talk some about your evolution as an artist, both as a singer-songwriter and a visual artist? How do you create such powerful choreography in your music videos?
Pip: I think the visual arts portion of me and the songwriter portion of me are constantly informing each other and shaping each other. I wouldn’t write the songs I write if I didn’t have a background in the arts, and my art wouldn’t look the way it does without the music. When I first started this whole thing my goal was just to get it out there, a “fake it ’til you make it” sort of deal. My material was more vapid, but still eye-catching, simply trying to attract some attention. I figured people were probably going to remember what they saw more than what they heard, and nowadays people may not even stop to listen unless it looks interesting. All the flowers were just a way to get people to stop and listen and hopefully leave something in their brains to remember.
Of course, you can’t fake it the whole time; the art has to mature if you want it to last at all. I know now that I have a responsibility to create things that are meaningful or that at least say something. As my career and life move forward, I am finding it more and more enjoyable to take my time with things, to learn and soak up experiences, so that when I do create art, it is coming from a place of depth and not just shallow content, although “shallow” content can have its positive place in art sometimes. But yeah, I used to not care if things didn’t make sense; as long as the melody was beautiful, I felt satisfied. Things stylistically and technically have improved over time for me as well, but the biggest evolution is probably that I care more about the meaning behind my art now more than ever.
As far as choreography goes, I am not really a dancer, but I do love the idea of the human body being another expression of creativity. I can’t help but move when I hear music playing. It just seems natural to dance in some of my videos. For my most recent music video, I had some help from my friend Jordana Dale. She came over one day and we worked through some choreo together for “Siren Song.” It was one of the most fun things I have ever done with a friend. I highly recommend it.
AF: What is your creative process like? How do you take a song from the idea to the studio to the stage?
Pip: The creative process can be so hard to explain, and it differs from project to project. The best I can say is that I absolutely have to be alone at first. I feel too shy and vulnerable to create while people are around, especially during the initial conception of an idea. Even my husband being home can give me a lot of anxiety while trying to create. I like to start at the piano and eventually I move to the computer to add the proper atmosphere around whatever melody I came up with. I don’t even know where lyrics come from. Most of my songs start with some placeholder lyrics that make no sense at all, but it’s the right number of syllables for the melody, and then I try to plug in the right words from there. Sometimes it feels like it’s all happening simultaneously.
My most productive, creative moments are a whole day ordeal. I get the best stuff done when Sam is gone on tour and I wake up and spend an entire day alone. I don’t talk to any other humans and I hole up in the house and drink a ton of coffee and tea. I pace a lot on those days or just lay in the middle of the floor looking at the ceiling. Sometimes I will have three of those days in a row. I like to get to the point where I feel really lonely and a little crazy; that’s when stuff starts to flow better.
I tend to prioritize how the song is going to sound in the studio. I want it to exist as its own little piece of art. I don’t ever really consider how it is going to feel on stage until it’s completely done. Even now, I have a new EP that is about to come out and I still haven’t thought about the show. Maybe a proper comparison would be a painter wanting their painting to look really good and they don’t even think about how it’s going to look hanging in a museum or printed on a postcard. They just care that their creation now exists in its proper form, but eventually, they’re like, “Oh yeah, I probably should put it in a good frame and have good lighting on it I guess.” Maybe that’s a dumb analogy. I definitely care that my shows are a good experience, but my songs on the stage feel like a completely different thing than the song itself.
AF: Which bands or artists do you consider your greatest inspirations?
Pip: Grimes and The Beatles.
AF: Your husband, Sam Burchfield, is a musician as well. Do you collaborate creatively with each other, or do you keep your projects separate? Does your creative process differ when you’re working together versus when you’re working alone?
Pip: I love an opportunity to work with Sam but it’s rare. My anxiety ramps up the most when we are trying to collaborate and that usually causes us to stop. But there have been a few times where we’ve kept that under control and have been able to work together and it’s always really gratifying when it does work out. He recently released a song titled “Blue Ridge June” that was our first true co-write. We were both working on our computers one day and I heard him sort of humming this melody — I don’t think he even realized he was humming — and I quickly got out my phone recorder and was trying to steal the idea without him noticing. I was caught red-handed and we decided to stop sending emails and go write the song together. I’m still pretty private with the start of an idea but once I get something going I do like to sort of bounce some ideas off of Sam and get his input. He was definitely a bigger part of this upcoming release. The melody for “Land of Love” came from him just messing around on the piano one night and a lot of the lyrics in “Medusa” were co-written.
The nice thing about working with Sam is that we play completely different genres so there is never any feeling of jealousy or competition or fighting over which artist the song will belong to. We genuinely want to serve the song and come up with something that is true and genuine for whichever one of our projects we are working on. Sam is so patient and graceful; I am really lucky to be married to him. It’s a vulnerable process but it’s really beautiful to be able to create music together.
AF: You’ve gone through quite a few changes over the last few years, most notably a name change. What has been your biggest takeaway through the changes, and what advice would you give to your younger self, knowing what you’ll face in the future?
Pip: Don’t be too prideful and stay focused on your aim.
AF: You’ve got a brand new album, Love Legends; Part 1, coming out soon. What was the inspiration behind the record? Did it differ from previous projects?
Pip: Love Legends; Part I is inspired by Greek Mythology and the Italian Renaissance. I wanted to revisit the Greek classics and bring them into an indie-pop realm. I am fascinated by the lessons that can be learned in ancient stories and it’s interesting to see the same truths reflected across many cultures. At the moment, I don’t feel like writing about parties, or ‘being yourself,’ or the political climate, or even love songs for that matter; that’s all already out there. If I am going to add to the noise I want it to be about our mortality. All the things happening around us are important but above all, we are going to die, and I want to nourish my soul with truth. At least that’s my aim for this current project. I feel like I am only on the tip of the iceberg with Part I so I am excited to further the concept with future projects.
This EP differs from other projects in that it is my most DIY. I did a lot of pre-production at home and then recorded the EP with Sam and our good friend Caleb Hawley in an empty apartment in Spanish Harlem and had our friend Owen Lewis mix everything. It’s also the first time that all the songs revolve around one theme.
AF: You’ve just released an incredible music video for “Siren Song,” and it’s absolutely stunning! What’s the story behind the song?
Pip: “Siren Song” is my version of the sirens in Homer’s Odyssey. The sirens are winged creatures that lure sailors to their destruction with their beautiful song. They are symbolic of something that is essentially too good to be true, like fame or fortune. We are tempted by the allure of fame, money, beauty, more social media numbers or lust, et cetera, but these things lead to an empty life, to the death of our souls if we aren’t careful.
In my version of their song, the sirens sing, “Call out my name.” I believe when we say something out loud, we speak it into existence. Acknowledging a desire enough to say it out loud allows it to gnaw at you and taunt you. You will start to chase it but you will never be happy.
AF: We’re living in a time where women in music and art are given more of the respect they so deserve, but, at the same time, more and more injustice is coming to light, as shown by the #MeToo movement, not to mention several groups petitioning for more visibility for women on the radio or festival lineups. What has been your personal experience as a woman in the music industry? Do you feel that the industry is changing, and, if so, for the better?
Pip: I cannot speak for others, but my personal experience as a woman in the industry has not been bad. In fact, I am very happy with how things have gone. With the exception of a few drunkards, I generally feel like my fans and peers are extremely respectful. While true injustice needs to be addressed, I am personally very hesitant to add to the subject as a “victim” of some patriarchal system because I believe all these issues are far more complicated than that. There are more factors than just gender bias that play into the visibility of women vs. men on the radio/festivals. If someone is treating me unfairly I would rather have the mentality that they are treating me that way because they’re an asshole instead of because I am a woman. I don’t want to further a culture that starts to demonize the “white man” or masculinity; I think that is a dangerous approach to the problem. I am still trying my best to understand it all and I want to be careful with my words, so for now I will continue to observe and research while grinding away at my art, finding my voice and hustling as hard as I can. I do think positive changes are happening and women have more freedom than ever to pursue something like this.
AF: You’re a fixture in the Atlanta-Athens music scene. What’s it been like to see the music and art scenes grow over the last few years, and why did you decide to make it your home base?
Pip: Athens was the perfect city to start doing music… everyone there is so receptive of art no matter what form it comes in, plus the motivation you get from being surrounded by an artistic community is priceless. I love Athens for that and owe a lot of my career to that community. I moved to Atlanta to challenge myself and to be closer to Sam. For now it is a great home base; we love our friends and we are able to travel easily out of Atlanta.
AF: Last one! What’s next for Pip the Pansy?
Pip: Part II, I suppose!
Stream “Siren Song” on Spotify now, and keep up with Pip as she prepares for the release of Love Legends; Part I, direct from the Land of Love.
I discovered I The Victor by chance sometime in 2018. My band and I were asked to play an artist spotlight alongside Rebecca Ramos, the heart, brain, and creative force behind the act, that, unfortunately, coincided with a tour we were going on, but I started following her then and loved her bright, open, offbeat aesthetic. Almost a year later, I got the chance to talk with the “posi-rap” artist about all things music, Atlanta, and “Hypotheticals,” her latest release.
AF: Thanks so much for talking with me! Do you mind telling me a bit about your story? How did you get into music?
RR: Of course, thank you! I super appreciate getting to chat. I got into music shortly after discovering Avril Lavigne as a living, breathing, amazing entity on earth. She just really struck me, and from there, I was interested in making music of my own. Not too long after, my parents got me one of those $40 first act guitars, and I was off to the races. I ended up writing really bad songs for a long while and, as I got older, began writing stuff that I was excited about and wanted to put out into the world.
AF: What’s your creative process like? Has it changed over the years, as you’ve toured and recorded and released more music?
RR: Usually it starts at the guitar, but sometimes a line or melody will hit me at a random time, and I try to just drop everything and give it the attention it needs to become something bigger. I try to steer clear from sitting down to write and usually wait for something to come to me, and then I’ll sit with it and flesh it out into something more full. Otherwise, if I try to sit down and be creative, I get pretty in my head about if I’m being organic and real, and usually end up scrapping whatever I write if it feels forced.
As music has become more of the main focus of my life, I have a lot of new toys that have made their way into my process, whether it’s the instrument library on Logic, weird samples, or just messing around with different plugins or vocoders. I think it’s cool, when possible, to start with something kinda eclectic or weird and to pull out some pop sensibility from it. So all that’s in the mix as far as my process, but I definitely try to keep it fluid and let lyrics or melodies come to me naturally.
AF: Who do you consider your greatest influences? How do you draw from those influences while also staying true to what makes you unique as an artist? What inspires you as a songwriter?
RR: I’ve been listening a ton to Billie Eilish recently, along with Glass Animals, Still Woozy, Hippo Campus, Jaden Smith, and so many more. I try not to pull too many direct musical influences; I like to just listen to a ton of diverse stuff, and if I hear a sound or topic that inspires me, I’ll go from there. I do, however, get super inspired just watching artists as they blossom and create worlds around their songs. That’s something I feel like that takes songs to another realm.
I also get inspired by seeing other artists’ merch or marketing rollouts for albums. I love the whole packaging and how far a song can extend into other dimensions like visuals or live shows or clothing. I’ve been really inspired by artists like Halsey or The 1975, who are very meticulous about their aesthetic and the way their visuals and songs transcend into their shows. Anytime I see something unique, I’ll screenshot it and go back to it as I brainstorm for ITV content. I never want to copy what’s been done, but there are always ways of taking cool concepts and molding them into something unique to your own song or vision, so that’s what I try to do!
AF: Everything about you — your music, your visuals, all of the messages you send out to your fans — is so positive. How do you stay so optimistic, in both your music career and your personal life?
RR: Thank you so much! I aim for that. I definitely started writing songs out of a darker and more insecure place, but the purpose was to kind of seek out hope through writing about hopelessness. So, that whole theme of staying positive has just kind of stuck throughout and become this mantra for ITV as a whole, which I am really proud of. The music industry can definitely feel dark at times; there have been times I get so discouraged that I don’t know where else to go than to go back to that place of seeking out hope. I think life is that way too in general: a constant flux and flow of failure versus success, light versus dark, or progress versus setbacks.
I just don’t know what I’d take refuge in if I didn’t have music or wasn’t creating for the purpose of finding hope and staying positive, so I feel really lucky and comforted that it’s naturally become kind of the banner of ITV songs. It’s begun making its way into my mindset day to day, too, which is also lucky. I think there’s just a ton of darkness out there and we all kinda get to feeling alone or hopeless. As ITV grows, I just want it to be a light for people where we can discuss growing pains and dark times but still do that within the lens of hope because we all need that.
TL;DR – life can get heavy. What would I have if I didn’t have hope? I literally don’t know and don’t want to know. ITV has been a vessel for finding positivity for me and I hope it can be that for others too.
AF: What’s your favorite part of the Atlanta music scene, and how has the city — and the creative community here — influenced you as an artist?
RR: I meet and find more and more amazing people in Atlanta daily, it seems. I adore it. Everything I do with ITV is super DIY or friends-only in a way. We just don’t have a label, don’t have big budgets or resources to do huge productions or outsource a lot of things. The result is myself and my closest friends getting to work on ITV things altogether, and it’s been life-changing. The output is so much more raw and organic, which makes it all the better. I’ve gone to Switchyards quite a bit with my brother and met some amazing designers and creatives there. ITV lets me meet awesome people, too, which is fortunate. It’s just so cool getting to meet people doing creative things that inspire them. It creates such a limitless space for organic collaboration and just freedom to keep doing you; it’s so exciting and definitely a huge part of how anything for I The Victor gets accomplished.
AF: What’s next for I The Victor?
RR: So. Much! So much. I keep feeling like we’re in the most exciting phase yet, and I get sad thinking about releasing it all because then this phase of anticipation and excitement will have to come to a close! But yes. A lot! Definitely some new music preceding an EP and then we have quite a bit planned to complement the songs coming out, from merch to videos to shows. Excited is an understatement and I feel really lucky for the small community growing around ITV because it’s a super exciting time right now!
Follow I The Victor on Facebook to stay up to date on new releases, music videos, and shows (and your daily dose of positivity in a crazy world).
Atlanta’s varied music scene is no secret; in just a few short months, Playing Atlanta has featured garage rock, indie rock duos, Americana singer-songwriters, and disciples of Southern Rock, but even that doesn’t begin to cover the true mosaic of the city.
Audiofemme got the chance to talk with True Blossom, a bright, joyous pop experience, who have just released their newest album, Heater. Read on for more about the quintet, their passion for pop, and big plans for their next release.
AF: What is the True Blossom story? How did the band form?
TB: We knew each other from playing shows together in other bands for years in the Atlanta pop scene, and we wanted to form a new band. We don’t have much of a narrative, only our songs. Like Paula Abdul. We’re the Paula Abdul of Atlanta indie pop.
AF: What drives you to create music, together and individually?
TB: Pure, unbridled ambition. Like that fucking uncut, barrel-strength, Napoleon-whining-about-Alexander-the-Great ambition.
AF: Which bands or artists inspire you the most?
TB: We mostly draw on pop formalists in one way or another, but the specific artists vary. Sophie listens to a lot of pop country and Motown; Jamison likes what you might call psychedelic pop, like Beach Boys, Robert Wyatt, Tropicalia, etc; Nadav likes a lot of that sort of hybrid disco/funk from the ’80s, like the Jones Girls. The sophisti-pop bands are also a big influence: Orange Juice, Prefab Sprout, the Blue Nile, etc.
AF: You recently released a record, Heater. What was it like to release your debut album? What was your proudest moment, and what was the most challenging for you?
TB: We loved making the album! It was easier than we expected. A blessed process. I think the best moment was when we all traveled up to New York together to mix it; we ran ahead of schedule, and finished early somehow, which in retrospect seems impossible.
AF: What’s your creative process like?
TB: We just play songs over and over again until they write themselves. We’re a fairly prolific band, which is amazing because we’re not exactly a well-oiled machine of creative praxis. I think it helps that we limit our palette of sounds, but like, literally, every guitar rock band does that too, so I don’t know.
AF: What’s your favorite part of being in the Atlanta music scene?
TB: When we travel the rest of the country, we notice that the shows often happen in really crummy DIY venues. Atlanta is very blessed by the quality and stability of the venues and promoters. 529 is at least ten years old at this point and remains a great place to play and watch bands. And if it ever closed, we’d probably just utilize the Unicorn more. I think knowing that your band is usually going to be playing on real sound systems allows folks to get more ambitious with the sounds their bands make, and that goes a long way in explaining Atlanta indie pop right now. The trade-off, of course, is that DIY, all-ages venues get choked off a little, which is crummy. My other favorite part of the Atlanta music scene is that you can now get Campari at 529, which is not a thing you used to be able to do. But they don’t have sweet vermouth, which is bizarre. How are they planning on selling all that Campari?
AF: How has the Atlanta scene influenced you as a band?
TB: Talking about the Atlanta music scene is sort of ridiculous because there’s a rap scene obviously, and a hardcore scene, a bunch of old garage punks, Georgia Tech kids making proggy-jazz, squares with acoustic guitars… there are a lot of scenes that don’t overlap. And there’s not really a reason for them to; those garage punks probably will not like our band and are under no obligation to do so. But our little corner of the world is wonderful. Lots of kids getting ambitious with real pop melody, keeping the DX7 patches very bright, a lot of joy to go around. We’re inspired by Fantasy Guys, Red Sea, Breathers, Doug Bleichner’s solo stuff, and that’s just a very short sampling.
AF: What’s next for True Blossom?
TB: We’re tracking our next album in less than a month, so big things popping there. We’re also working on a video and planning a tour for the spring.
Follow True Blossom on Facebook as they prepare for a new release, announce spring tour dates, and take over the pop world, one song at a time.
On Feb. 4, Seattle singer-songwriter-producer Parisalexa dropped a blistering new single, “Hothead.” The track, both defiantly relevant and subtly creative, takes the confidence Parisalexa had on display with her last two releases to new heights.
“Hothead” is perhaps one of Parisalexa’s most straight-forward pop releases. Rihanna and Ariana Grande come to mind upon listening—as Parisalexa mixes up something that’s a little-bit trap, a little-bit Erykah Badu—with lyrics that point toward a larger conversation about the injustices in today’s world.
As the single starts, Parisalexa sings, “I don’t really give a fuck/Feeling like I had enough/You don’t wanna start that shit with me,” and as she sings silkily, “you got me so hot,” the subject seems like an object of sexual desire. After all, both anger and sex are equated with passion, and Parisalexa’s vocal delivery teases at that dual meaning.
But, then we arrive at the chorus: “I feel like I’m/ Pissed off/ Shadow boxing.” This part seems to introduce another invisible, elusive challenger, and as her synth-y beat escalates, it feels much greater than a single individual. And when a snare beat repeats like rapid gunfire in rapper Laza’s verse, it seems to imply her eyes are looking to broader themes.
In this way, Parisalexa joins the larger national conversation in pop music about anger—at sexism, racism, facism, or just plain old ugliness in the world—which has been a more palpable undercurrent in recent hits from top pop artists like Kendrick Lamar, Beyonce, Justin Bieber, and Solange. (The song “Mad” from her smash 2016 album A Seat at the Table, couldn’t be a better example).
But Parisalexa said that when she looks back, she can’t remember what made her so furious.
“The process of writing ‘Hothead’ was pretty spontaneous,” she said. “My producer, Elan, and I were in the studio and I’d come in a bit irritated that day, so we decided to write about it. I started the first line with ‘I don’t really give a fuck’ and from there, I just let the words kind of spill out. Almost all the lyrics just came out in the moment from the pure emotion of being pissed off. Now, I actually don’t even remember why I was so mad. But I just knew how perfectly the explosiveness of the beat at the hook would lend itself to the song’s overall sentiment.”
Sure enough, “Hothead” ebbs and flows with Parisalexa’s slow-burning rage—and it’s intoxicating. It’s a space for listeners to finally release any heat of their own.
After releasing her entirely self-produced experimental pop album, VIVID, in 2015, Detroit-based songstress Krissy Booth has fully transitioned to the bright side of pop with her single “Lose Sleep With You.” Where VIVID is built on dark warbly bass and the pain of a bad breakup, “Lose Sleep With You” shows Booth in a completely different light, embracing the bubbly optimism of pop music.
Part of the song’s uplifting aura comes from its subject matter — a whimsical whirlwind romance built around a love for nightlife. “I had just ended an on and off again sort of relationship that was very safe,” says Booth. “I got on bumble, started talking to a guy, and we met later that week and had this wild adventure… I felt really alive after being so sad.” Booth’s reinvigorated outlook on romance is made evident through her whipping vocal line that mirrors the heart spikes induced by a new crush.
Booth’s buoyant vocals are paired with Red Jumpsuit Apparatus drummer John Espy’s booming pop production. The match-up is Booth’s first full collaboration with another artist and brings her closer to mainstream pop’s center. However, the epicenter of pop is where Booth feels most comfortable anyhow. “The music I make feels true to who I am and I’m super proud of it,” says Booth, “It’s pop, I love pop music, and I love electronic music.”
Listen to “Loose Sleep With You” below.
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