The Faux Faux - Kendall Lujan - Hannah Scott - Jesse Hite - BC Camplight - Cody Hall
Faith Vern, lead singer of notorious Manchester punk band PINS, has shared new single ‘Cold Hearted Woman’. The single, a swaggering and smoky number, marks the launch of her new solo project, The Faux Faux, as well as the relaunch of the Drowned in Sound Singles Club. “We’ve always championed Faith’s work in the ultimate punk gang PINS” says Drowned in Sound founder Sean Adams. “We got talking a couple of years ago, when she sang with Iggy Pop at the BBC’s legendary Maida Vale studios and kept in touch.”
“When I murmured that I was thinking of bringing back the label, Faith mentioned a solo project… and as I absolutely adored what she sent over, here we are, restarting the singles club that previously kicked off the careers of Kaiser Chiefs, Bat for Lashes, Martha Wainwright and more. This is track one from what will be a slowly released 10-track compilation of new artists I love, with a new track arriving each month.”
With a chill in its bones and a fire in its belly ‘Cold Hearted Woman’ is a debut single that feels as if it has just marched off the set of Peaky Blinders or John Cassavetes’ Gloria. “I’ve always been intrigued by Cindy Sherman, Sylvia Plath, Gregory Crewdson, Virginia Woolf, Nan Goldin to name a few,” explains Faith Vern, “these writers, poets, photographers, artists, who have shown us the beauty and the desperation in the mundane.”
Vern continues “After the birth of my first child I needed more space which meant moving from my one bedroom flat in Prestwich to a ‘proper’ house. Somehow my husband and I convinced ourselves that we should head to the country, little did we know that lockdown was lurking… I was writing about being somewhere and feeling trapped, anxiety and coping mechanisms.” “The chorus ‘I’m a Cold Hearted Woman’ is of course tongue-in-cheek, it’s almost like once everything, all your personality, freedom, joy, is forced out of you, you just sorta go ‘ok fk it, you think I’m cold, well yes, here it is...’ ”
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The striking talents of rising Portland artist Kendall Lujan will be impossible to miss in the coming year. Her indie-operatic voice stratifies songs through octave runs, making moody, melodic folk rock. To rise out of Portland's flush music scene is no easy feat, Lujan has been making herself heard by singing harmonies in AC Sapphire’s backing band The Shoulderpads.
In her latest project Lujan steps out in front of the band. Many folks introduction to Lujan will be “Another”, a song of lingering desire that floats Lujan’s vocal range over a small symphony of archtop guitar and strings. Her strengthy voice –which ranges from mountain holler to bird-like warble, seems to hang in the air. She sings a song about retracing steps to the point where love was lost, and resolves to regain that trail in another life.
Lujan opens the moody “Dot My I’s” solo, fingerpicking guitar, giving us a chance to hear her commanding voice. Layered vocals and gentle driven drums join Lujan in a pocket groove. Enjoy her lyricism as she asks “how can these memories be so sweet, and other times only sting?” Lujan comes to Portland from the upper-left-most corner of rural Washington. She’s had bands before but the time of the pandemic created an opportunity for Lujan to do things differently. She moved to Portland, and saw the isolation of relocation and lockdown as a chance to really dig into her own songs. The trained piano player picked up a guitar.
Lujan’s songs concentrate on growing up, and figuring it out, and she turns experience into a story to make the point. The natural singer and songwriter put together a band with Micah Hummel (drums) Sam Arnold (bass) and recorded at the Map Room in Portland with Dominik Schmidt producing.
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Taken from the forthcoming EP “Ancient Lights”, “Into Your Grief” is the new single from Surreybased contemporary folk artist Hannah Scott. The EP is a collection of old songs Hannah thought deserved to be dusted down and played to audiences once more. Into Your Grief was written towards the end of 2008 as her three year relationship was breaking down.
Hannah says, “I’ve often found myself too afraid to say how I really feel. As I’ve got older and realise the impact that not being fully open and honest has, I definitely see this as a weakness and it’s something I’m working on. Somehow expressing those feelings in lyrics is easier. My relationship had been on the rocks for a while and we hadn’t voiced it. I played my then partner the song and we both started crying and that was that! We are still good friends 15 years later.”
Ancient Lights takes its name from the house she grew up in, a Tudor building in Suffolk, named by her father because of its leaded light windows. These take centre stage in the EP artwork created by her mother. Hannah had the idea to name a record after the family home in her early twenties but she knew she’d have to wait until she was older in order to have some old songs to record so the title would make sense! Two close family bereavements in the space of a year as well as the period of quiet which the pandemic and lockdowns brought set Hannah on a path of reflection as she rediscovered some of her oldest material.
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Jesse Hite - Just A Kid.
Heart-felt lyrics wrapped in a saucy bass-line, catchy chorus, and a head bobbing groove; with remnants of Gorillaz, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Arctic Monkeys, and The 1975.
This opening song for the upcoming EP Vol. 1 is really a look into getting older and fighting with the feelings of aging, depression, and anxiety. How have 30 years already past? I still feel like a kid. I am just a kid. I was always “the kid” in the local music scene. Always the youngest one on stage and still keeping up with the veterans. But now, that is no longer the case. I think everyone has this disconnect at some point in their life. As time goes on, our lives get busier and life seems to speed up day by day. We all want to feel young forever.
Jesse Hite is an American artist living in the French countryside as a musician, producer, and singer-songwriter. His experience exploring and living on the West Coast of America, travels through Asia and Europe, and time spent living in France has taken his lyrics and songwriting to a whole new level. He has combined those life experiences inside his home studio and molded them into a piece of art for all music lovers to enjoy. He shares his honest experiences through his intricate storytelling-like song style. His songs are groovy, atmospheric wonders with poppy hooks and deep stories.
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BC Camplight has just announced news of his new album, The Last Rotation Of Earth, out May 12th via Bella Union. To accompany the announcement, BC Camplight has shared a lyric video for the LP’s title track and first single. Is there a curse that says Brian ‘BC Camplight’ Christinzio cannot move forward without being knocked back? That the greatest material is born out of emotional trauma? Whilst making his new album, The Last Rotation Of Earth, Christinzio’s relationship with his fiancé crumbled after nine inseparable years.
The album follows this break-up amid long-term struggles with addiction and mental health. The outcome is an extraordinary record, with Christinzio describing it as “more cinematic, sophisticated and nuanced than anything I’ve done before.” He goes on to describe how the separation altered his creative focus and caused him to “scrap 95% of what I’d already recorded”, finishing The Last Rotation Of Earth in two months and making what he believes is his most vital album.
Still, Christinzio doesn’t see any of this as a story of redemption. “This is not a story of victory,” he says. “It is a document created in the shadow of incredible darkness. One from which the creator hadn't planned on escaping, and still doesn't. Hence the title of the album. It is the result of an illness that I've battled my whole life. It isn't something that the world has done to me. It's the world I live in and it's no one's fault.”
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Independent Country artist Cody Hall from Lethbridge Alberta has a brand new song available on streaming services today February 10th
“Made my day”, the third track recorded with Bucket Brigade Studios and producer Joel Pearson, highlights the story of young love and has an alternative-pop flare that compliments the country flare that Cody is known for.
Cody's previous releases, “One of Them Boys” (August 2022) and "The Dark" (February 2022), both hit regular rotation on local stations here in Alberta and together have over 300 plays on Sirius XM’s Top of the Country channel.
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