Flight Attendant - Sohodolls - Blue Violet - Ella Tiritiello - Kalila Badali

Flight Attendant - Honeysweet.

Flight Attendant recently announced their upcoming debut full length will be out on September 30th and they are heading out for tour dates in the US and Europe. "The debut album by Flight Attendant stands as a fine testament to the development of a exciting new band who have adopted such an eclectic mix of sounds and styles from their home in Nashville." say Louder Than War of the upcoming LP.

Flight Attendant belongs to that breed of rock bands made in Nashville, where their sound is nothing less than a sonic unicorn. Blending sounds of grunge with power-pop hooks, viola and light synth textures, they have begun to create a hypnotic sound and energy all of their own.

Flight Attendant belongs to that breed of rock bands made in Nashville, where their sound is nothing less than a sonic unicorn. Blending sounds of grunge with power-pop hooks, viola and light synth textures, they have begun to create a hypnotic sound and energy all of their own.

The group met through many shared interests, friend circles and glasses of wine. Karalyne (Lead Vocals, Keys, certified Sommelier, originally from Kansas City, Kansas) met Vinny Maniscalco (Vocals, Guitar, award-winning bartender, originally from Boston, Massachusetts) while bartending together at Nashville restaurant 5th & Taylor where Nikki Christie (Vocals, Viola, great at drinking wine, originally from Los Angeles, California) joined in too. It didn’t take many nights of cocktail making and wine tasting before the band formed. With the addition of drummer, and long time drinking buddy Derek Sprague (drums, lager lover and also from Boston, Massachusetts) the lineup was complete. Together the group has released a collection of singles including pulsating grooves like “Man of Chaos,” which was described by numerous media outlets as one of the best singles of 2020.

======================================================================

Sohodolls - Letter To My Ex (Thank You, Goodbye).

London's influential electro-rockers Sohodolls are back! After being out of the limelight for more than a decade, a globally enforced lockdown revived one of their classics ‘Bang Bang Bang Bang’ into an unexpected viral TikTok hit among the Gen Z glitterati, which has inspired the band to reform and release some stunning new music.

Musically, ‘Letter To My Ex (Thank You, Goodbye)’ may take its cues from ‘Bang Bang Bang Bang’, however, Maya von Doll’s return can only be described as a perfect pop anthem for any break up. Blending old school beats and new wave synths with that sauciest of Britpop wit, alongside hook laden singalong parts, it is a poignant single to capture her, and some of her band members’ actual real life present divorce situations as only they can.

Maya von Doll never holds back with her favoured kinky BDSM language to express her breaking free from an unhappy situation, “'So, if I could press rewind, untie the ribbons from my eyes, unkiss the kiss that led to this, no swallowing of the lies you spit'.

No stranger to cult following and success, Sohodolls debut album in the naughties ‘Ribbed Music for the Numb Generation’ has always gone down well with a young crowd, having been the sound of one of ‘Gossip Girl’s’ most famous striptease scenes from Leighton Meester to writing pop bangers with the likes of Charli XCX and then this unexpected viral revival in 2021, Maya von Doll recalls,

“One morning I received a flurry of frantic texts from friends, saying Madonna has just shared and tagged your song, I was in the middle of a house move, no internet so I had no idea, but it was crazy.”

======================================================================

Blue Violet - Favourite Jeans.

Blue Violet are back with news of a new EP, single and a spread of Scottish tour dates this Autumn.

Directly following their debut album ‘Late Night Calls’ (released in the Spring of 2022), the band have been busily working towards its successor in the shape of a new EP entitled: 'Love, Hate & Forgiveness’. Confirmed for release on 21st October, the four track release will feature two acoustic reworkings of ‘Late Night Calls’ classics, plus two brand new offerings including the new single “Favourite Jeans.”

While described by Blue Violet as “a continuation of themes, both sonically and lyrically, that we explored on our debut album”, the songs of the ‘Love, Hate & Forgiveness’ EP mark a distinctly different writing chapter for the duo. Whereas the songs heard on their debut album ‘Late Night Calls’ date back to a prolific month-long session in 2019 with producer Rob Ellis (Anna Calvi, Marianne Faithful, PJ Harvey) at Devon’s Middle Farm Studios; their upcoming material is a glimpse of how the pair spent the inescapable lockdown of the following year.

“For all of the chaos and hardships that Covid brought to the world it also provide ample time for people to be creative” reflects singer Sarah Gotley of the ‘Love, Hate & Forgiveness’ EP. “So although we only released our debut album in April this year we wanted to bring out some of the music that we'd been working on in that time”.

Songs of social distancing and hand-sanitising, these are thankfully not. Instead the duo used the time as an opportunity to step away from the humdrum of the everyday and into the imaginative, character-driven worlds Blue Violet so capably envision. The material of ‘Love, Hate & Forgiveness’ EP is the first to emerge from these sessions and finds them expanding their universe.

======================================================================

Photo - Ebba Lange

Ella Tiritiello - Take it Personal.

After impressing with her debut single ‘Say Something’ earlier this year, 16-year-old Ella Tiritiello has returned with her gorgeous follow up single, ‘Take it Personal’.

Take it Personal comes as a reminder that honesty is always the best policy. Sharing more Ella explained:‘The inspiration came from how you often say to people to not take it personal and “it’s not you, it’s me”, but maybe sometimes it’s better to just keep it straight.’

Despite only just turning 16, Ella Tiritiello has already put herself firmly on the map. With her debut single ‘Say Something’ already at over a quarter of a million streams and a knock-out live performance at the prestigious ‘Brilliant Minds’, this year has already been a big one for the rising teenager.

Born in Kristianstad, a small town in the south of Sweden, Ella Tiritiello was raised by music lovers on a potent diet of powerhouses including the likes of Diana Ross, Adele and Sia “I loved to sing their songs in my room, but I never wanted anyone to hear, mostly because of my stage fright. I couldn’t see myself stand in front of people and sing.”

Now Ella stands as a young artist who’s already overcome her biggest fear. In 2021 Ella was selected by the Tim Bergling Foundation (Avicii’s father) to sing, perform and release Avicii’s ‘For A Better Day’ alongside the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, she rose to the challenge and performed to 16,000 people. A huge undertaking for any artist, let alone a 14 year old with stage fright.

Her effortless vocal talents and authentic stage presence instantly won over the crowd as her confidence blossomed before their eyes.

======================================================================

Kalila Badali - No Eye Contact.

Kalila Badali is a singer, songwriter, and psychotherapist based in Toronto. Aside from her solo project, Kalila is a lead vocalist and songwriter of the indie band, Shy By Shy. As an individual with a learning disability, writing music became an important source of self-efficacy and self-expression for Kalila. By teaching herself guitar and songwriting, she was able to express her understanding of the world from the perspective of a neurodivergent, learning-disabled person.

The song “No Eye Contact” and the Panacea EP is meant to be an expression of the sense of helplessness, hope, and longing for deep understanding that can come from having mental illness and disability while servicing this same population’s mental health needs. Kalila’s hope is to promote acceptance for the diversity of brains that have always been present and often misunderstood through her music and her practice as a therapist.

“No Eye Contact” is written about one of Kalila’s online dating experiences, and the absurdity of thinking you have a connection with someone and then finding that the so-called connection just exists in this weird online world of text and not so much in real life. As a therapist, Kalila also hears this same kind of story over and over again with her clients; it really is a universal experience!

“Something I keep returning to about the title is how it plays into neurodivergence and how significant eye contact is a tough subject for many neurodivergent people,” says Kalila. “Whether it’s giving too much or not enough, people are often making commentary about what eye contact communicates. In this song, I was also trying to reconcile with my own panicked response to having no eye contact while being present in person, but also in how much more projection and fantasy could take place when there was no eye contact at all during the online interactions.”

Kalila Badali · No Eye Contact

======================================================================

Timo de Jong - Blue Violet - Allison Forbes

Timo de Jong - Dawdle. 

Timo de Jong has just released his track 'Dawdle'. This is the title track of his new EP, which is also where he collaborates for the first time with a producer, Thomas Olivier (Hackensaw Boys, among others). Before the corona pandemic, Timo played more than 100 shows a year, but in recent times he has been forced to focus on what he does very well; writing new songs.

When asked about this new project, Timo says: “This EP means a lot to me, because it is the first time that I have really been able to let go of things during the process. Working with Thomas has not changed my sound, but improved and refined it. I believe that I have experienced great growth.”

Over the past year, Timo de Jong and producer Thomas Olivier have worked on the music together, from the demo to the entire end product. A certain sound has been deliberately chosen with an appreciation for a warm and natural sounding production. For example, all vocals were recorded live and with a microphone from the 1950s.

Timo de Jong is an authentic musician who lives for live performances, of which he has already performed more than 600. That includes three successful tours through England, and performances in Germany and Belgium. Whether it's an intimate living room concert or a band performance in a pop hall, Timo does his thing, and that thing is: making good music. In 2021 he participated in the 'Hit The North' program, a talent development program in collaboration with Eurosonic, among others.

He makes his music to arise, to tell and to heal. In doing so, he takes experiences of himself and those around him, in order to write a universal and appealing text about them. Behind the scenes, Timo de Jong has been refining, improving and crystallizing his music for a number of years. He moved from folk to rock 'n' roll, eventually arriving at Americana.

 

Revanche Records · Timo de Jong - Dawdle

==========================================================================

Blue Violet - Halo.

Offering one final glimpse into their debut album ‘Late Night Calls’ — set for release on 29 April 2022 — “Halo” is a climactic new cut that builds to a colossal conclusion. Dealing with the anxiety of leaving your comfort zone and surrendering to something new, “Halo” stirs to life as a delicate and dynamic ballad before building into a theatrical and thumping expanse that blends tender vocal harmonies with wall-of-sound instrumentals.

Touching on a range of influences plucked from literature including the fabled river Styx from Greek mythology and Murakami’s surrealist novel ‘Hard Boiled Wonderland’ and even nods to the far-out fantasy of Jim Henson’s ‘Labyrinth’, “Halo” deftly blends the real with the surreal and boasts Sam and Sarah Gotley’s breadth as writers as much as instrumentalists.

Speaking of the track’s creation, the husband and wife duo explain: “Like ‘Labyrinth’, in the song it feels like there’s a woman lost in another place and a man who rules over it. In most of our writing there is a narrative that runs throughout and provides a metaphorical theme. In this case we really did have this surreal vision of an underworld in our heads when we wrote it, and we tried to make the music match by adding in things like key changes and a bridge that was completely different sonically to the rest of the song. But it is also figurative for how it feels to willingly surrender yourself to something new; something dark that takes you out of your comfort zone. People tend to shy away from moments like that in life, although they often provide us with extremely profound experiences.”



==========================================================================

Allison Forbes - Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Two years ago Tamworth-bred country artist Allison Forbes had the world at her feet. Her debut album Bonedigger - produced by Oz country legend Shane Nicholson - had come out in early-2020 to near universal acclaim, debuting at #1 on the ARIA Australian Country charts.

It was the second highest-selling independent record across all genres in that heady first week, with Forbes’ distinctive take on outlaw Americana near omnipresent on country radio, topping numerous radio charts in the process.

It’s hard to imagine things going better for the mould-breaking singer-songwriter - Forbes and Bonedigger would go on to score four prestigious Golden Guitar nominations at the 2021 Tamworth Country Music Festival, and be voted Most Popular Female Artist at the 2020 Independent Country Music Awards - but then… the COVID pandemic struck.

Instead of Forbes being able to hit the road and consolidate the hard-fought traction she’d achieved withBonedigger - connecting with her existing audience and winning over new fans with her captivating live show - the country plunged into lockdown and the hard-fought momentum began slowly ebbing away.

Such immeasurably poor timing would have justifiably broken many artists, but instead Forbes doubled down and poured her heart and soul into what would become her brilliant second album, Dead Men Tell No Tales. It’s a collection which hones and magnifies Forbes’ indubitable talent to create an album conceived in and forged by adversity, yet which transcends its tough-times genesis courtesy the stunning empathy and compassion which floods through these beautifully-rendered tales of loss and grief.

“It was really an album that I didn’t know that I needed to make until I wrote the songs, and even now looking back on it I didn’t realise how relevant it was going to be,” Forbes admits. “Everyone was experiencing a lot of loss, including myself. I lost one of my best friends fairly early during the pandemic - I’ve also dedicated the album to him - and I think that loss tied in with a lot of other confusion, and a bit of angst as well. There’s a muse that’s a common thread through the songs.

==========================================================================

Hailey Whitters - Blue Violet

Hailey Whitters - Boys Back Home.

Iowa-born and Nashville-based rising Country star Hailey Whitters has just released her highly anticipated third album 'Raised' via Pigasus Records/Songs & Daughters/Big Loud Records. Also released is the Harper Smith- directed video for the album’s single “Boys Back Home” that was shot on location in Hailey’s hometown of Shueyville, IA.

Hailey Whitters is currently in the midst of her debut headline Heartland Tour which will culminate with two shows at her hometown honky tonk DanceMor Ballroom in Swisher, IA on May 6 and 7. She will also hit the road this summer with Jon Pardi on his Ain’t Always The Cowboy Tour.

"This song was inspired by the boys I grew up with. On any given Friday night we used to pile in the back of one of their pickup trucks, get a bottle of cheap Hawkeye vodka and drive out to a clearing in the middle of the woods where we’d start a fire and sit around all night drinkin' and talkin' about life,” explains Whitters.

“I grew up with a lot of wild boys that turned into strong, hardworking men. They had my back then and I know they still have it now. I wanted to sing this song as a way of saying thank you and celebrating them. I know I wouldn’t be where I am today without ‘em.”

==========================================================================

Blue Violet - Rabbit Hole.

A raw and minimalist ballad that tactfully grapples with addiction, self-destructive cycles and the powerlessness that comes with watching a loved one go through a hard time, “Rabbit Hole” is a shimmering and stripped-back sampler of the duo’s forthcoming full-length LP.

Gauzy and subtly heartbreaking, with a sound as tender and exposed as its lyricism, guitarist Sam Gotley began laying down the track’s foundations in the car after a long day at the studio. Speaking of “Rabbit Hole”’s inception, he says: “This was one of those songs that exploded onto the page (I had to write and record voice notes frantically to get it all down without forgetting something), but it took a lot of fine-tuning to finish. This was an emotional song to record. Musically speaking, we kept things very bare and wanted to shy away as much as possible from electronic instruments and excess overdubs, so the end result is something quite natural using a lot of acoustic instruments, which the live room at Middle Farm Studios captured beautifully.”

Citing a series of vintage influences, including Nick Cave’s “Nobody’s Baby Now” and Leonard Cohen’s “Chelsea Hotel”, “Rabbit Hole” contends with two differing perspectives: one spiralling and self-destructive, and the other determined to pick-up the pieces and cobble them back together.

And for all its vulnerability, the track proved an emotional one to lay down in the studio. Feeling compelled to retreat into herself and create an atmosphere where she felt completely alone with nobody listening, vocalist Sarah Gotley was “met with four weeping men in the control room” after she recorded the track’s vocals.

Expanding on “Rabbit Hole”’s backstory, she explains: “To me this song is about protection. Whether that’s protection of self or protection of others. It has always felt like a very delicate subject to approach, being that so many people can relate to it on some level. So, approaching it with honesty, personal experience and sensitivity was the only way that felt right. Addiction from the viewpoint of someone who is on the outside looking in is such a fragile topic. Trying to address these emotions without feeling contrived, or playing on the pain of others for personal gain is difficult.”

==========================================================================

The Gina Furtado Project - Blue Violet - Team Me - Cassidy Mann

The Gina Furtado Project - It Wont Be Me.

Drawing on the distinctive sound that earned her a third consecutive International Bluegrass Music Association Banjo Player of the Year nomination in 2021, Mountain Home Music Company’s Gina Furtado starts off her 2022 with a new single, “It Won’t Be Me.” Backed by her eponymous Gina Furtado Project, which includes two of her sisters, the singer-songwriter serves up a characteristic blend of engaging music with a powerful lyric theme.

“It Won’t Be Me” mines the rich vein of Latin- and gypsy jazz-flavored sounds that has served Furtado well since her 2017 breakout hit, “Puppet Show” — and as it did there, the deft ensemble playing of sisters Malia (fiddle) and Lu (bass) Furtado, plus guitarist Drew Matulich, is deployed to support a woman’s declaration of independence from mistreatment.

Delivered in Furtado’s immediately recognizable voice, the lyric works its way over minor chords from an opening uncertainty — “I could see the writing on the walls/Sometimes it would fade/And sometimes it was all I saw” — to a dawning recognition (“You broke my heart, my home/And in my broken mirror/A woman said, ‘He’ll never break your spirit’”) before turning to a more optimistic sound that underpins the defiant lines of the chorus:

“I will be the one who’s standing firm and strong
And I will be the one who writes
Whatever kinda song I want
And when you treat somebody just exactly as you please

“This was a touchy song for me,” notes Furtado. “Domestic abuse is so prevalent that we're all bound to know someone who has, and/or is experiencing it. I know I do. It is often so confusing for victims, and so hard to leave a bad situation. I hope that this song might help somebody who just needs to hear an ending that is alternate to what they may currently be feeling they are destined for.”

 

==========================================================================

Blue Violet - Poster Girl.

“When I was a Poster Girl in 1984, you tore me from your magazine and pinned me to your wall” lulls Sarah Gotley, seemingly adrift in the bittersweet reflections of another lifetime.

A twisting ballad that touches on the fickle promises of fame, the fight for feminist rights and finding your own way through life, “Poster Girl” is the story of a shining star who’s unafraid to stand her ground. As Blue Violet guitarist Sam Gotley elaborates of the track:

“”Poster Girl” is a song about fighting back. The character it centers around resists objectification, defends herself from evil and keeps whatever company she sees fit – in the chorus she finds herself the leader of a group of drunken sailors that accompany her on her voyage… As the writing process went on we felt that a dystopian, Orwellian setting was perfect for the female protagonist: weary traveller, fighter, lover & saviour all rolled into one.” 

With shades of Slowdive or Sigur Ros’ subtly-epic sonic masteries to Mazzy Star’s brittle heartbreakers, “Poster Girl” finds the Anglo-Scottish duo of Sam & Sarah Gotley in perfect synchronicity as they pair lush arrangements to a narrative straight out of Hollywood biopic. “Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed definitely worked its way into the fabric of this one” adds Sam, “but we also wanted to give it an anthemic feel. We layered a lot of guitars & synths and have two drum kits playing at the end, giving a feel that the world is kind of collapsing around you.” 

Written in 2019 as Blue Violet found themselves well-into the throes of recording sessions for a full album with legendary producer Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey, Bat For Lashes), the track emerged as a standout from a clutch of new demos the band recorded during a particularly prolific creative spell. With pre-production perfected at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, “Poster Girl”’s swelling riff and lyrical narrative soon began to fall into place. With the final version recorded with Ellis, “Poster Girl” was mastered by Mount Olympia Mastering, engineered by Peter Miles and mixed by TJ Allen.

==========================================================================

Team Me - High Street.

Norwegian art-pop band Team Me release new single "High Street" - the third track to be heard from the their long-awaited third studio album 'Something in the Making', out 11th March 2022 via Propeller Recordings (Sløtface, Highasakite, Lokoy).

Mixed by Grammy-award winning producer/mixer Darrell Thorp (Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Beck) and mastered by Emily Lazar (David Bowie, Björk, Coldplay, Haim) the new album is their first for 7 years, following their critically acclaimed and Norwegian Grammy-winning debut album To the Treetops! (2011) and its follow up Blind as Night (2014).

Psychedelic art-pop anchored by superlative songwriting, "High Street" is another charming taste of what to expect from Team Me's long overdue return to the fore. Led by Norwegian singer/songwriter Marius Drogsås Hagen, Team Me have received widespread international success and attention to date, creating an engrossing alternative pop universe in the process.

New album 'Something in the Making' continues in that vein, a journey which began with the band's surprise reunion in 2019: “When we first announced our reunion, the love and appreciation was just overwhelming to be honest. I was very surprised,” says Hagen. “Still, it was a good move to not rush into anything. It left everyone with hope and motivation for the future.”

It paid off. That compulsion drove Hagen to complete the most accomplished and world-beating collection of songs of his career so far. What makes it even more of a triumph is that this music finds a whole lot of light out of the darkness.

 

==========================================================================

Cassidy Mann - Fine.

By entwining her acoustic roots with gentle electronic textures, singer-songwriter Cassidy Mann finds her true voice on the upcoming debut EP, If It’s Not Forever. As a lyricist, she often reshapes a small moment into a powerful and poetic song that feels both personal and relatable. What makes these recordings stand out, though, is the way the sonic approach enhances the storyline, allowing her to share her most intimate memories in a singular way.

Co-producing with her friend Roman Clarke, Mann wanted to find a cinematic yet wistful sound to complement these emotionally driven pop songs. They achieved that effect through reverb and delay on the guitars, along with crafting lyrics about specific moments in past relationships.

“My favourite thing is to write about tiny things that make the bigger picture more important somehow,” she says. “I was wondering a lot about how two people can be in the same situation and have different memories attached to those times. It’s interesting to me how memories are interpretable that way.”

Mann notes that these songs also serve as a catalogue of how her early relationships ended and why – and she hopes that other people will feel seen and comforted by her stories. While processing one particular breakup, she remembers sitting on her bed and eating the same sour candy she once shared with the person she missed. When she discovered the metaphor – “this thing that seems sweet, but also physically hurts you if you have too much,” as she describes it — the song “Tropical Sour Candy” emerged.

She wrote “Election Night,” tweaking the melodies with Clarke, to capture the intense awakening and transformation that many people experienced over the four years of the prior presidency. The lyrics focus on a couple that moved beyond just friends that night but ultimately ended as strangers. Her skill as a writer is especially clear on “Fine,” as that simple word takes on multiple meanings in the context of a heartbreak.

Certain moments in a relationship are almost always at the core of her songs, whether it’s the potential start of something special (“Since I Met You”) or the inevitable end (“Stop a Heart”). There’s also an acknowledgement that listeners can carry those important parts of the past through the rest of their lives (“If It’s Not Forever”). “A lot of the time, whenever I’m remembering something, I find myself connected to these subtle moments that made me feel alive in some way. Those are the things that I replay in my mind a lot.”

==========================================================================