Burned-out mathematician turned indie-soul artist, Jeremy Voltz’s music is inspired by thinking deeply about the people in his life and what he’d love to have the courage to say to them. Reminiscent of Jeff Buckley, Hozier, and Stevie Wonder, he has a voice that is powerful and haunting, delivering hook-heavy melodies with universal, heartfelt lyrics.
Voltz’s new indie-folk single, “Mountains”, follows on the heels of his debut full-length album, Weekender, produced by multi-JUNO-winning producer Michael Wojewoda. Weekender was named Album of the Year at the Ontario Folk Music Awards in addition to receiving national airplay. The music video for “Fall Apart” has been screened at film festivals internationally and received awards at the Indie Gathering International Film Festival and the Open World Toronto Film Festival.
A signed artist with Hyvetown Music Publishing, Voltz has quickly gained notoriety as a songwriter. His songs have been featured on national commercials as well as on film, television, and radio by companies such as Hallmark, TLC, the NFL, and CBC Radio. Currently featured on Spotify’s Discover Weekly, his award-winning acoustic anthem, “One Day at a Time,” has millions of worldwide listens and recently inspired an illustrated children’s book.
Sacramento quartet Güero have returned a new single “Scribe,” a first taste from their third album, due in early 2023. The track was produced with Akiyoshi Ehara (Geographer/The Seshen).
Discussing “Scribe,” bassist Russell Volksen noted, “We called it ‘Scribe; because it came from always recording the practices, like the way a scribe was tasked in being the record keeper. The song started just as something that we jammed on, a three-chord progression that Rik had. A week or two later, I was listening to it and thinking, ‘We have to try to make a song out of these riffs because they’re really cool’. So, I played it for everyone and we kind of were able to grab some of the parts and construct a song using those riffs. It feels like it was the first time we ever did that, where we pulled some random riffs in a jam and said, ‘that’s the intro, that’s the verse, etc.’ Mike would always yell, ‘Scribe’ impersonating the scene from, ‘Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail’ if we needed to pull up a recording for reference after this.”
Along with Volksen on bass, Güero are guitarist/vocalist Rik Krull, keyboardist Shea Ritche, and drummer Mike Ruiz. The quartet are fond of banging things out live, in their rehearsal studio, recording via the Voice Memos App, to see if anything clicks and sparks. Through this process “Scribe” was born.
AyOwA’s Hannah Schneider has just unveiled a really gorgeous evocative new video for ’The World’s Gone Still Now’ from her new album ’Ocean Letters’.
From the beginning of her career, Hannah Schneider has established herself as a unique musician on the Danish scene. With her love of strong melodies and well-crafted lyrics, she constantly treads new artistic paths, carrying the weight of contemplation as a companion.
‘Ocean Letters’ is written in a time of turmoil, where the waves of water and time have inspired Hannah Schneider's universe of contrasts. Where she has found her classical roots and connected them to her electronic universe. Where gravity and hope, vulnerability and beauty exist side by side at all times.
Nathaniel Bellows - Well Water (feat. Shara Nova).
My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Nova joins Nathaniel Bellows on the single “Well Water,” just released through Harmon Blunt Music. The pairing–built upon multiple past collaborations– creates a conversation between the two contrasting voices, which in turn captures texture, contrast, atmosphere, beauty, and surprise.
“Well Water” swims in introspection while inventorying “the self” in moments of challenge, ambiguity, indecision, or indirection. Simply put, the message is: The search for one’s place in the world–or in one’s life–is ongoing, as long as you’re willing to participate. Bellows says, “I wrote this song throughout the pandemic, and in the wake of my father’s death, all the while reflecting on the question: What makes us who we are?”
The contrast of growing up surrounded by the quiet beauty of the natural world in rural New England and now living in New York City’s urban landscape creates tension in Bellows’ music. The songs are an ongoing dialogue between internal, reflective wonder and an external sense of outward, urgent searching.
Bellows works in three creative fields simultaneously–writing, music, and visual art– exploring a cohesive artistic point of view among the three mediums to undergird his songs. He says, “I explore emotional terrain with these various creative outlets in an attempt to understand–through different vantage points–what matters to me.” He writes about memory, affect, family, legacy, the natural world, human frailty, injury, redemption, and resilience. He says, “I’m interested in unresolved images and fragments of unfinished thought and dialogue.” The engine of most of his work–writing, music, and artwork–is the constant process of reconciling the past while existing, in an ever-changing state, in the present day.
As the weather is starting to cool down a bit we proudly bring you this appropriately autumnal single release of "The Fourth Cycle" by Denver based Allison Lorenzen. A staple in her live shows, "The Fourth Cycle" centers Lorenzen's prodigious and classically trained piano and features a particularly tasty pop hook that is difficult to shake once it gets it's hooks in you.
Lyrically, it seems that Lorenzen is turning her face towards the other side of the cathartic nature of the critically acclaimed Tender released last year on Whited Sepulchre Records. Lorenzen states that "The Fourth Cycle", "explores themes of intimacy and change, and the spectrum of emotion - from grief to empowerment - that arise from facing and allowing said change." If Tender charted a way out by going through the crushing span of personal tragedy, then "The Fourth Cycle" stands on the other side of it, looking back a bit more wisened and grateful.
Recorded, mixed, and co-produced by Mark Anderson in Colorado in 2022. The song was written on piano and then the recording was built around a live drum take which was sent through analog machines such as Space Echo, Binson Echo Rec, and spring reverb to create counter rhythms, bringing the track to life.
From the beginning of her career, Hannah Schneider has established herself as a unique musician on the Danish scene. With her love of strong melodies and well crafted lyrics, she constantly treads new artistic paths, carrying the weight of contemplation as a companion. On her new album Ocean Letters, the classic piano composition and the evocative electronic elements form a seamless kinship and create a picture-saturated tale of time.
Ocean Letters is Hannah Schneider's first solo album in 7 years. Behind her, she has 3 highly acclaimed solo albums in her own name, while in recent years she has been busy in the electronic duo AyOwA, and the performance project Philip I Schneider. Hannah has been nominated for several Danish music awards and has performed all over Europe, the UK and the US with her captivating solo performances, where she live samples, loops and creates playful soundscapes on stage. In addition, her voice has appeared in several films and TV series, including the national DR TV series Ride Upon The Storm.
With Ocean Letters, she seeks out new landscapes again. The songs create an intimate connection between the neoclassical and the modern, the near and the universal, and emphasize her cinematic, evocative expression with strength and a human humility. The pandemic as a new worldwide condition became the beginning of the new songs. The album is inspired by the book Havbrevene (The Sea Letters) by Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen - an exchange of letters between the sister oceans the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean who write together about life in the sea and on earth.
Central to the songs are the piano and Hannah's spherical and evocative vocals, while the productions create budding hopes with flickering electronic elements. And while it's still the strong melodies that are the focal point for Hannah Schneider, the record marks a new sonic path, with a cinematic sound that creates strong images in the listener's mind.
After the years in the internationally recognized duo AyOwA, where Hannah has written and sung in Danish, she again wanted to write in English with the new songs. But the way of writing - in more direct, minimalist lines, which come from the spoken language has stuck with her ever since. “You write in a different way in your mother tongue. And even though my father was American and I grew up with English as my second language, I had to go around my mother tongue to find my own way in the English lyrics”.
Celebrated Welsh band Derrero continue an unstoppable 26-year trajectory with their new album Curvy Lines. Recorded back in Nov 2021 the album sees Derrero exploring new ways of working to expand upon their sonic palette and distinctive use of cut and paste song writing. Many ideas were traded across the web and new material was rapidly realised during 4 days of marathon studio sessions.
Maintaining a resolutely DIY approach to music making Curvy Lines demonstrates a strident and confident band who remain steadfastly unafraid to swim against the tide and self-produce and self-release uncompromising music outside of the mainstream
The members of Derrero all met at Falmouth Art college in 1993: after studies, they evolved in Brighton before settling in Newport, Wales. There they released their debut single Tiny Shoes on Size 8 Records in 1997 and also their debut LP later that same year after signing to Big Noise records in Cardiff.
Since the bands foundation Derrero have released 4 critically acclaimed albums and toured with the likes of Super Furry Animals, Catatonia, Sebadoh and Granddaddy as well as collaborating on the film ‘Beautiful Mistake’ with John Cale. The band also recorded three sessions for the legendary John Peel.
The Calgary, Alberta-based psych-rock/dream-pop band, Crystal Eyes have just shared their new single, "Don't Turn Around" which comes off the back of support for last month's release, "Wishes" which went on to find support at FLOOD, Brooklyn Vegan, Exclaim and more. The new single is the latest to be lifted from the forthcoming second record, The Sweetness Restored which is set for release via the beloved Madrid label, Bobo Integral (Motorists, Ducks Ltd, Quivers) on April 22.
Crystal Eyes, who are made up of Erin Jenkins (singer/guitarist) and a revolving cast of musicians, currently Jordan Tettensor (guitar), Joleen Toner (synth), Will Johnson (bass) and Paul de Andrade (drums) describe the new record as a "feel-good self-help record for the age of existential dread." The Sweetness Restored displays a kind of wistful self-awareness right from the start, it's a collection of ten tracks that flirt with musical influences ranging from new wave, psych-rock and shoegaze, with songs driven by melody and steeped in texture.
Recorded at Montreal's Breakglass Studios with producer/engineer, Andrew Woods (The Operators, Legal Vertigo, Basia Bulat) before being mixed by Mark Lawson (Arcade Fire, The Unicorns, Peter Gabriel) the record contains thoughtful attention to musical detail thanks to the talented team of artists behind the project. And with the beautiful, warm tones of the Neve console, it's at once a unique sound, but one that feels comfortingly familiar. The prolific Scott' Monty' Munroe (Preoccupations, Chad VanGaalen) contributed bass and the talented Eve Parker Finley composed and performed string arrangements.
On the new single, "Don't Turn Around" the band turns the dial on some of the forthcoming album's post-punk aesthetics and 00's indie-rock sounds, nodding towards the Show Your Bones era of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Metric and The Raveonettes. Speaking about the new track, Jenkins says: "We wrote this track starting with the synth line and formed all the other parts around that. The drums are actually built off a loop of the live drumming (played by Kenny Murdoch), that our producer, Andrew Woods, built. The guitar part (that guitarist Jordan Tettensor) wrote felt incredibly Joy Division - this is one of the darker tracks on the record. We were definitely going for something moody and also sanguine."
Niloo tells us "To Feel It Deep is the first single off of my self-titled EP. To Feel it Deep is a catchy, nostalgic and heartfelt dream-pop tune about the grief experienced from a heartbreak you can see coming from a mile away.
The song begins with a simple yet conspicuous guitar and bass line, blended with warm vocals that carry the intimate lyrics through a build that grows into a lush and energetic arrangement. This song was crafted in the middle of the 2021 heatwave, at Risqué Disque Studios in the beautiful Cedar, BC, with the help of Jen Yakamovich of Troll Dolly on the drums and vibraphone, Shilo Preshyon as co-producer//audio engineer//mixer//bassist, and finally, Jonathan Scherk, who mastered the EP.
For the music video, I worked with the talented director and filmmaker Ali Calladine, who previously shot the music video for my debut single, Funny Face. We aimed to create a simple, yet beautiful music video that highlighted the introspective and emotive elements of the song.
The visuals interweave three scenes that represent three different facets of post-heartbreak reflection: a vocal performance scene highlighting the lyrics, a movement scene with evocative choreography, and lastly, a water scene representing renewal. The music video features choreography and performance by Ella Huber of The Space Collective, as well as performances by myself and Youssef Ben Ammar."
Indie pop singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Tamar Berk has released the lead single from her upcoming sophomore album Start At The End, titled “your permission”. This new single is the first new music from Tamar since her full length album from 2021, The Restless Dreams Of Youth, which was just nominated for album of the year and best pop album at the San Diego Music Awards.
The song, which also opens the new album Start At The End, starts out small and intimate – with just Tamar’s voice and some wurlitzer keys – before steadily building up additional layers of vocals and instrumentation until the song arrives at a huge sing-along chorus, showing off the full dynamic range of her songwriting abilities in a relatively small package.
Speaking to the inspiration and lyrical meaning behind “your permission”, Tamar writes “There are days, or even periods of my life when I just want to stop having to be me, and step outside of myself and be someone else…not have to deal with my usual anxieties, issues, and the obsessive thoughts in my head. Just the thought of not being in my head, even for just a day, seems so incredibly liberating! My thoughts can be quite intrusive and annoying and I suppose, it would be nice to experience not having to deal with being myself for a day or making any decisions. The title of the song “your permission” came to me as I thought about moments when I find myself apologizing for stating my opinion, needing something, or simply standing up for myself. My first instinct is always to apologize which I find myself doing sometimes…ultimately the title is ironic.”
The single is also accompanied by a music video in which many different ghostly versions of Tamar are overlaid on top of each other, each wearing different outfits as they all sit down to play at the same piano, a clever mirroring of the track’s opening lyric “can I ask your permission to be someone else today?”.
Venerated Nashville singer/songwriter Ali Sperry has just released "Excuses," the latest from her forthcoming LP, In Front Of Us, out on March 11th.
"Excuses" calls out those who can't take responsibility for their actions - "In keeping with the archetypal characters in this record, 'Excuses' centers around the person who you want to give the benefit of the doubt to but repeatedly lets you down, a person that makes a mess and holds no accountability," says Ali of the track. "As I continued to tease out the lyrics to the second verse, I found myself picturing our then president and wondering whether in his quietest moments he was ever able to experience the weight of the harm he was doing."
With Owen Biddle on bass, Jen Gunderman on keys, Kai Welch on synth, and Sadler Vaden’s rip-roaring guitar, Ali was able to explore a broader palette of colors, and channel into the music some of the innate anger that comes with being human.
Wildlife Freeway, the artist moniker of songwriter Sunny Atema, released her debut album Sunny on Alex Ebert's Community Music label, available to stream worldwide. The album features a collection of exquisitely crafted, moody, whimsical indie-folk songs that courageously plunge into the depths of human emotion.
“A wildlife freeway is a bridge for animals to safely cross over busy roads, so when we humans are rushing off in cars to our parties, the animals can get to their forest fairy parties too,” says Atema on the project and album. “The name also speaks of wildness and life on the road. The actual road, putting in the miles, brings us eye to eye, connecting without a screen between.”
A few years back after her beloved dog passed away, Sunny Atema packed her real upright piano in the back of her station wagon and toured the entire US. “I was so sad, I died too. I felt like a kite whose string was cut loose, longing for Earth,” she explains. The music shows were raw, both painful and joyful, surrounded by the perfect presence of people beckoning her back to their shared world when she felt disconnected from it. It was in New Orleans on that very tour that she was introduced to Alex Ebert, and soon after they entered the studio together.
“I don’t normally produce other artists, so when Sunny showed up at the studio unannounced, I had no notion of producing anything,” Ebert recalls. “But as soon as she sat down at the baby grand, I was inspired. This was a uniquely personal kind of music. I approached the production itself delicately, as if the songs themselves would shatter to pieces if a callous move was made. I wanted to make sure the whole album felt the way I felt when I first heard her at my studio - like we are each being let in on a secret.”
With a minimalist and sensitive tone, Hannah Schneider's new single Mirror Sphere tells a monumental story about the beginning of life. Mirror Sphere returns to the amoeba's path from sea to land in an organic, ambient pop song. The single is the second single from Hannah Schneider's upcoming album Ocean Letters. Mirror Sphere was released on February 25 via Copenhagen label Midnight Confessions
The singer is one half of the celebrated duo AyOwA who have received significant international support from the likes of Huffington Post, The Independent, VICE, The Line of Best Fit, CLASH Magazine and Wonderland Magazine as well as airplay from both BBC Radio 1’s Huw Stephens as well as BBC Radio 6’s 6mix with Nemone. Independently, Hannah Schneider has been nominated for several music prizes in Denmark, and has performed all over Europe, the UK and the USA. Her spherical voice has appeared on several big Scandinavian TV series, recently in the international nordic TV series Ride Upon the Storm.
Hannah Schneider released the first single from her upcoming album in November ’21. “We Will Be The Only Sound In The World” is told from the perspective of a conch shell, about the grains of sand and waves that have left their mark over time:
“We Will Be The Only Sound In The World opens on an austere, elegant piano topped by Hannah’s deliciously haunting voice, crystalline yet ethereal at the same time. It’s one of those mystical voices with the power of summoning up the past, present, and future” pop off.us
The mysteries of nature and the oceans have inspired all the new songs, and the story of Mirror Sphere is told from the perspective of the amoebas - life at the beginning of the earth.
“I wrote Mirror Sphere in the middle of the darkest times of the pandemic. It felt like it was a crucial moment in history - almost as if it was the end of it all. I came to think of the earth's long history, and that everything happens over billions of years - all the way back from the time the amoebas decided to go ashore, to become animals and later humans. We're just part of the long haul, and that’s kind of a consolation!”
