Pop artist Nadia Vaeh has just released her newest single, “Snake Lady,” which tells the story of a femme fatale that influenced and pushed her further in her journey of self-discovery. For the release of the single, Nadia Vaeh teamed up with The Love Yourself Project, a non-profit arts and education organization that provides community programs that promote self-awareness, self-acceptance, self-esteem, and skill-building.
Nadia Vaeh describes the “snake lady,” the antagonist in the single, as “a girl with a darkly magnetic aura. She had a charm to her...a snakey charm and I was instantly enamored and stricken.” Based on a real experience, Vaeh tells the story of her run-in with a temptress. “I was in a very vulnerable place in my life, and she exploited that. Despite all of this, she did give me something in return as I was now able to explore more of my sexuality and was pushed even further and deeper into my journey as an artist and back into my skin.”
As a long-time advocate for self-empowerment, Vaeh often encourages and shares her journey of self-discovery with fans. This new single, “Snake Lady,” takes us further down Vaeh’s journey. With a vivid beat and catchy melody, this song elevates listeners’ mood and quickly takes them into the story of a tempting mistress. The upbeat and danceable pop track was written by Nadia Vaeh and Daena Rogers, produced by Andrew Gomez and Tyler Spratt, and mixed and mastered by Tyler Spratt.
Alicia Stockman is a Utah-based folk-meets-Americana singer-songwriter whose music pulls back the veil to reveal everyday vulnerability. Her songs are written like intimate moments, drawing listeners into a relatable emotional journey.
At a young age, Alicia Stockman began her deep love for music, compelled by the vivid storytelling of powerhouse songwriters including Patty Griffin, Brandi Carlile and Jewel. After performing in a loud rock n’ roll band playing bars with sticky floors and belting out Stevie Wonder tunes, Alicia began writing her own music more seriously. Realizing her new songs didn’t have a place in a loud bar with a party atmosphere, she branched out and started playing more intimate venues, quickly finding her home in the folk and Americana scene. Her whisky-dipped soulful vocals and creative takes on day-to-day realities soon sparked the interest of “Nashville’s Americana Queen” Mary Bragg who began collaborating with Alicia on her new album.
Her upcoming debut 10-track full-length album is entitled These Four Walls and is a collection of "songs to make you feel and feel seen." The album says, “I see you. I've been there. I understand.” Written over a three year period, These Four Walls is a luminous roots release infused with gritty blues rock guitar licks and attention worthy melodies.
The first track on the album, “Stay Between The Lines,” was written during a long drive home from New Mexico and the highway inspired single discusses how we all can sometimes “dance between right and wrong and personal limits and boundaries to keep life interesting.” The reverb drenched guitar and wild west twang make “Stay Between The Lines” an alluring listen.
In the album’s title track, “These Four Walls,” Alicia hopes to destigmatize the conversation on mental health. She confides, “I wrote ‘These Four Walls’ to help me process a former relationship in which my partner had severe depression/anxiety disorder. This song was my way of unpacking all that and finding a way back to myself.” The song features a stripped-down melody with dreamy, tender lyrics that showcase her vulnerability as an artist.
Recognized for her unique songwriting and performance formula, Alicia has received accolades from several performing songwriter competitions including Songwriter Serenade, Tucson Folk Festival, Suzanne Millsaps Songwriter Competition, and the Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival. These Four Walls is due for release November 5th 2021, worldwide.
A messy and distressed apartment in Los Angeles provides the unique setting for the latest music video for the song “Leap of Faith'' by conscious pop singer and Atlanta native Nadia Vaeh releasing this Friday, September 24th, 2021. Filming for the music video took place in her actual apartment as she prepared to move back to her hometown of Atlanta. The video captures the story of her leap into the music industry while dropping everything she had to jump in her Toyota Corolla and move to Los Angeles.
Filmed entirely with a cell phone the music video also tells the story of her leap back to Atlanta. Images of Nadia packing, and labeling boxes surrounded by piles of clothing reveals a real story unfolding in real-time. “There is no better setting for this story in the real place where I lived, with the real mess I had when moving out”, states Nadia. “I was stressed, homeless and forced to move. There is no better imagery to depict the uprooting of my life than reality. The apartment was a mess because I was a mess.”
The uplifting and inspirational song for the video tells the story of Nadia’s journey from Atlanta to Los Angeles and back to Atlanta; a journey that started with quitting everything, living out of her car, and taking the chance in pursuit of a career in music. After working many odd jobs, including a stint in a local Atlanta circus, Nadia Vaeh’s frustration with her career boiled over to the point where she knew she needed to take her songwriting and melodic talents to a different level and go all-in with her career. “I knew I had songs in my head and stories to share that could help others. I was at a place in my life where I knew that I needed to take a chance on myself and pursue my dream even more so than I ever had.”, says Nadia Vaeh. “It was scary to leave all that I knew and move to a different city once, let alone twice.”
Co-starring in the video is Nadia’s Toyota Corolla “Pearl”. “My car Pearl took me from Atlanta to LA and back to Atlanta. This car has helped me achieve my dreams and without my trusty Corolla I would not be where I am today", states Nadia Vaeh.
“Caffeine is about the struggle to justify the choices you make and feeling like you need to please others around you, but still having to validate your choices inside your own head. I wanted the song to build as it progressed and it was important to me to achieve a really big indie, raw /grungy sound.
I love the song and feel Steve has really helped me achieve the energy and power it needed. This song feels so right for me right now, and I like that my writing is reflecting where I want to be musically”. says Lizzie
Steve Grainger who produced the record.“I wanted to build on the idea from Lizzie's demo, accentuate the lyrical themes and create an organic but powerful production. Lazy beats, simple, strong guitar riffs and bass lines with some yacht-rock and 90s grunge touches if you know where to look”.
Ahead of their anticipated sophomore effort (out 10/8 via AntiFragile Music), Nashville-based indie/folk group Birdtalker released today their new single "I Know." A defiant song about learning to trust your gut, the band called it "a broad-brush narrative about the experience of being shaped to believe that wonder and curiosity may be a threat, and the eventual realization that those qualities in fact have led to a more grounded and vital experience of being alive."
"It's a song about trusting the stomach, not necessarily the uncountable programmed stories and information we receive along the way," they continued. "It's a simultaneously tentative and certain exclamation that we will give ourselves permission to listen to those fundamental pricks of the heart, and trust they'll lead somewhere with integrity."
The new single follows several songs the band have shared from their forthcoming album, including the emphatic track "Taking Control," the breezy duet ""Tides," and "Old Sob Story," a rollicking song full of bravado and sass that Rolling Stone called "at times evoking the dramatic flair of the Decemberists' Colin Meloy, at others the bravado (and glammy tones of Marc Bolan." Lead single "Better Days" is also out now, a tranquil yet stirring song that finds the quintet reawakening and optimistically looking forward.
NYC-based rocker Brion Starr – otherwise known as musician Brian Hill – has shared the second blazing single and titular track (listen here) from the upcoming album A Night to Remember, along with an accompanying video. The album – produced by the legendary sonic mastermind Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T. Rex, Sparks) – marks Starr’s first music since the release of his 2020 sophomore effort, the aptly-titled 2020. Out November 19th via Taxi Gauche Records, A Night to Remember will be available as a 12” gatefold vinyl, CD, tape and digitally.
Speaking on the origins of “A Night To Remember,” Starr writes: “The track is a reflection on what was going on last summer with the worldwide protests that were happening, reflected through the prism of American sentimentality. I love the piano in this track, very special. ‘A Night To Remember’ your life, the kind of night that surpasses anything you could have imagined. The kind of night where it feels like the whole world could change.”
On the inspiration for the video, Starr writes: “‘A Night To Remember’ is a dive into the subconscious. It is a sort of fever dream in the middle of the album’s trajectory. I’ve always been fascinated by mime, how it’s neutral nature exposes the depth of human emotion. I wanted to bring out my inner Marcel Marceau for this video.
We shot it in a place I grew up going with my friends, the East River Park Amphitheater. We still meet there once in a while. That place means a lot to me, the city is trying to develop the park right now. I hope they do not succeed in their plans, the NYC of my childhood disappears a bit more each day. Check out East River Park Action to help out in stopping them.”
UK alternative band James have released their new album All The Colours Of You. James will perform tracks from the new record and many more from their rich catalogue live this summer, across festival dates in the UK and Europe.
James’ sixteenth studio album, All The Colours Of You was recorded in part before the Covid pandemic struck and is produced by the Grammy award-winning Jacknife Lee (U2, REM, Snow Patrol, The Killers). Matching the energy of the lyrics, Lee brought a fresh approach to James’ sound, working remotely from his studio with Booth (Lee’s Topanga Canyon neighbor) and liaising in a daisy chain with fellow band member Jim Glennie, reimagining their demos, and capturing the band in all their virtual glory.
The result is a record with the most fresh and festival ready tracks of their 39-year career, the sound of one of Britain’s best bands, deconstructed and reassembled by one of the world’s most renowned producers.
Since their breakthrough single in 1991, “Sit Down”, James have released fifteen studio albums, selling over 25 million copies in the process, and performed countless headline shows and festivals across the world. Many in the US will know James from their 1993 hit “Laid” which charted on the Billboard Hot 100, was featured as the theme song to the American Pie movies and has appeared numerous times in film and tv over the years. They continue to be a huge live draw, having sold 60,000 tickets for a UK arena tour scheduled for this November and December; a tour which has sold faster than any previous James tour. Their last US tour dates were a 2019 sold out, national run of shows with the Psychedelic Furs.
NY-based group Spud Cannon are sharing "Lovely," the final single off of their forthcoming new album, Good Kids Make Bad Apples. I was hoping you might get a chance to check it out and consider featuring it in some way.
Ari Bowe (keys, vox) shares, "When I wrote this song, I thought of it as the song I would write if my (then) boyfriend broke up with me. Funnily enough, I completely foreshadowed the end of that relationship -- my ex broke up with me barely a month after I wrote “Lovely.”
The verses are all about wanting to go back in time, not understanding how to move forward, and the what if’s that inevitably run through your head. The chorus came together pretty easily. During the writing process, Meg used the word “Lovely” as a stand-in before we had lyrics, and I ran with it.
That word inspired the song, and the bittersweet vibe of the instrumentals pushed me in the direction of a breakup song. But it’s also uplifting in a way: You’re going through a painful process following a breakup, and you feel consumed by the loss you’re feeling, but you know it hurts so badly because of how lovely the good times were."
Howard Mordoh, 69, is a retired clinical laboratory scientist, a southern California native, and possibly the world’s biggest concert enthusiast. He has been a notorious fixture of the Los Angeles music scene for decades, attending five to eight concerts per week since the 1970s and always dancing to his fullest. Easily recognizable thanks to his long white hair and spirited dance style, Mordoh’s love of live concerts spans genres and venues just as long as he can keep dancing. "Howard Mordoh is a one-man dance party, always ending up in the ‘Front Row,’” Fodor explains. “This song captures the joy he exudes when dancing to live music.” With the cancellation of live concerts in 2020 due to COVID-19, Mordoh has had to get more creative to keep dancing.
The process for the song started in Henry Ingraham’s home studio because safety protocols were still in order due to COVID-19, but as the city of Los Angeles slowly reopens, they were finally able to get together with Mordoh to shoot a video for “Front Row.” The music video was directed by Jen Fodor, who also produced and directed the documentary alongside Scott Sheppard. For the music video, Nadia Vaeh, who co-wrote the song with Fodor and Ingraham, compliments the song's retro beat with her glittery gold tracksuit while she belts out catchy pop lyrics. The rest of the band is also decked out in 80’s flair, including Howard Mordoh, who dances his way to the front of the stage. As the song peaks, the band is joined on stage by Fodor and Mordoh, resulting in a full-blown dance party.
The “Front Row” music video is a reminder not to take life for granted. This is indicated by seeing how happy Howard Mordoh is throughout the video to finally be dancing to live music again. Nadia Vaeh and Jen Fodor want listeners to continue to remain hopeful and optimistic about the future of live music.
Americana-folk-rock force Seafoam Green continue to impress with the third single from the LP, ‘For Something To Say’.
‘For Something To Say’, is the opening track of ‘Martin’s Garden’ and instantly pleases with fuzzy jam-band grit and sunshine harmonies, oozing with guitar solo twang and expansive organ vistas. It’s a rollicking journey through the band’s retro influences, flecked with their own unique twist that encompasses Americana influences and the band’s roots in Liverpool and Ireland with a nod to modern folk-rock bands like My Morning Jacket, Band Of Horses and Deadstring Brothers.
On the new single Dave O’Grady says, “For Something to Say is a glimpse of things we have seen/thought and experienced on the road; be it USA or Europe, a new story unfolds in front of us everyday and it's quite the adventure!”
“We are an old school “road band”, we love to travel and spread our music”, he explains “…plus it’s the only way we make a living…“Ive see the sun set twice today” is how it can feel when you’re on a 1,000 mile drive between shows but you've gotta to make it!”.
“I burn my feet for something to say”, - touring and travelling (especially squashed into a hatchback with gear for months) can be very hard on the mind and the body but we do it to gain and share our experiences through our music.”, O’Grady expands.
Singer/songwriter Megan Wyler has announced her first new album in eight years Upside Now, to be released July 9, 2021. Wyler has also shared the album’s ethereal title track “Upside Now” along with a video featuring dancer Indiana Woodward and directed by Goldmond Fong (Katy Perry, Maggie Rogers).
“This collection of songs is a cycle of seeking and finding - often with an unexpected outcome, but catharsis nonetheless,” says Wyler. “I am expanding/digging, coming to terms with untimely death, experiencing deepest love, emerging from heartbreak, lighting the fire of resistance, celebrating female solidarity, passion, fury, the cosmos. Lighthearted stuff like that."
A California native, Wyler released her 2013 debut Through The Noise while living in London. The album was praised by the likes of Nowness, Songwriting Magazine, Indie Shuffle who described her sound as “incredibly moving and luscious,” and Clash Magazine who called her music “subtle, delicate and very beautiful.” Closely following that album’s release, Wyler had a young son with a number of demanding medical needs. “It was my honour and privilege to make him my priority,” says Wyler. “Being a mother is and always will be my first job ahead of anything else.” During this time, Wyler found herself in a bit of a creative “freeze-over” as she calls it. “It was like I could see songs, ready to be born, but I couldn’t access them somehow.” As things calmed down at home, however, her creative freeze began to thaw.
Now Wyler is returning in full force. Earlier this year Wyler shared Upside Now’s first single “The Calling”. The song was featured on a number of top Apple Music playlists including New Music Daily, New In Alternative, and Wax Eclectic, and was used as the opening title music of the new Amazon Original Series Tell Me Your Secrets.
The Speed Of Sound - Replicant / The Melancholy Rose.
Now in their 4th decade, Manchester UK’s underground music veterans The Speed Of Sound return to the Big Stir Records Digital Singles, again displaying two vastly contrasting sides of their own distinctive, distilled and deeply recognisable tones:
Replicant: Driven by acoustic guitar and exuding a joyous hip-swaying bouncing beat. Replicant playfully asks questions about the very nature of human existence. Offering a foretaste of the themes of the upcoming full length album. Here too, The Speed Of Sound draw heavily from their Science-Fiction influences. While Replicant seems to inhabit the same universe as Blade Runner it also carries another message from the corporate world. Where modern job interviews appear to have evolved into some kind of reverse Voight-Kampff Test; instead of designed to detect replicants, the purpose is to determine if the applicant has unfortunately retained any human characteristics, or will - as hoped - mechanically follow scripts and instructions. Do Androids dance to analogue music? We don’t know, but point your arm and shout along with the chorus.
The Melancholy Rose: Shimmering summer pop for shaded people; languid open and drifting, a gothically tinged piece of romanticism lies atop a sparkling guitar riff and a tale of the first rose of the year to bloom. Ahead of its time and alone, but merely the trailblazer showing the way and heralding the coming change. A celebration of the sudden bursting open of summer itself and an invitation to tune out from the background white-noise of civilisation and relax. To exist in the moment and enjoy the things around us. The Speed Of Sound are known for their power, yet this displays their soaring delicate side. Guest vocals are provided by one of pair a blackbirds that nested (and successfully fledged four chicks) among the dense honeysuckle and ivy of John A’s back garden during lockdown.
Blue Stragglers share a video for 'Forever and A Day' taken from their new self titled E.P 'Blue Stragglers' both of which are all present and correct below. The bands raw power is easily matched by some more thought out structured and even anthem filled moments, as they deliver hook laden and impressive natural rock music. === From Caitlin Quisenberry we have a video for her new single 'Imogene'. Beautifully arranged the song showcases her classic country vocals whilst allowing space for a more modern and contemporary feel. === Nadia Vaeh today has shared 'Anxiety' a very personal song that tackles one aspect of mental health without being self pitiful or morbid, in fact it's more an energized encouragement to seek help and supports MusiCares, an organization focused on providing critical assistance to
people in the music industry, and resources that affect the music
community’s health and welfare..
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Blue Stragglers - Forever and A Day / Blue Stragglers (E.P).
“A tip of the hat to some of our favourite crossover anthems,” according to Stragglers’ frontman Lee Martin, ‘Forever & A Day’ is a song of epic intent, one that emerges from waves of feedback to deliver, via an enormous harmonised chorus, a yearning for simpler days – a sentiment we can all relate to during this disorienting corona-summer of 2020. A meld of robust garage rock and Nineties baggy euphoria, the song addresses the need to “accept the beauty of being aware that some things are bigger than me or you”, says Lee. The video, all wide-open seascapes and big skies, adds to the song’s expansive atmosphere as the band heed the lyrical call: “Meet me on the Way to the Sea”.
About ‘Last Call’ - Running the gamut of rock’s dynamic range, ‘Last Call’ journeys thrillingly from the industrialism of its opening bars via a satisfyingly slow-burn crescendo to its intense uber-grunge coda. The ‘Last Call’ in question is in many ways a cry for unity and justice – in this case expressed by making sure you do the honours when it’s your turn at the bar! Only Blue Stragglers could convey such a message with the intensity of ‘Last Call’.
About the ‘Blue Stragglers’ EP - Comprising five heavyweight alt-rock gems that lay equal claim for A-side status, Blue Stragglers’ debut EP captures the Sussex trio at their muscular, melodic finest. Recorded and mixed by engineer and producer David Holmes in the belly of Lightship 95 at Soup Studios – a houseboat turned recording studio docked on the Thames in East London – the EP sessions were almost over before they had even begun. Recording took place during a ferocious winter storm, which turned the loading of equipment across the Lightship’s ice-covered bridge into a precarious ordeal. Thankfully, the dreaded cry of “man overboard” was never heard and Blue Stragglers laid down five songs to serve as rallying calls of rock’n’roll defiance during a summer that’s been thin on such life-affirming delights. The mastering of the EP was shared between Bill Skibbe of Jack White’s Third Man Mastering in Detroit and Oli Morgan of Fluid in London.
Not many bands can claim to have built and then run their own non-profit rehearsal studio but then Blue Stragglers are not like many bands. Having grown up in the town of Horsham – nestled between London and Brighton – Lee Martin (vocals, guitar), Ali Waite (bass) and Andy Head (drums) bonded via a love of bands such as The Raconteurs, PJ Harvey, Supergrass, Demob Happy, Beck, Grandaddy and Jane's Addiction. Skilled players themselves, the trio originally formed the backbone of the much-loved Sussex act Tied to the Mast. But when they struck out on their own to form Blue Stragglers, they were lacking somewhere to hone their craft. And so began the tough but ultimately fruitful challenge of converting an empty space next to a South Downs chalk pit into somewhere they – and other Sussex bands – could practice 24/7.
This DIY dedication to their art is evidenced by the intuition that each member has for the others’ playing, as seen and heard in the supremely powerful live showcases that have secured Blue Stragglers a cult following across England’s southeast, from Brighton via Tunbridge Wells to Horsham and Hastings, alongside some intimate London gigs that first drew the attention of Lost In The Manor records.
Exuding that impenetrable, gang-like identity that’s the preserve of only the best trios, Blue Stragglers been picked up by BBC radio, stolen the show at a number of grassroots festivals and now, thanks to their debut EP release on Lost In The Manor, will be spreading that buzz much, much further afield. A programme of showcase gigs will be announced after the lockdown but in the meantime, you won’t find a better means of banishing the lockdown blues than a healthy blast of Blue Stragglers.
Nashville’s newest darling, Caitlin Quisenberry just released her the music video to her latest single “Imogene” after massive support on the single from Spotify Editorial with “New Music Nashville” and “Nashville Stripped.” The production and vocals of “Imogene” are as unique as the name. It blends two world together as the innocence of the mandolin sets the stage for Caitlin’s euphonious vocals, only then to be paired with the entrancing tribal drum beats found in the chorus, further pulling its listeners into the whimsical storyline.
“’Imogene’ is a journey into our subconscious, taking us to a place we have all been – being in awe or infatuated with what someone else has. It runs in the same vein as ‘Girl Crush’ by Little Big Town, where the elements of fantasizing, crushing jealously and desire, are all present. Another example is the classic, ‘Jolene’ by Dolly Parton portraying envy of another woman’s attributes that are so amazing she begs the beauty not to take her man. What I appreciate most about ‘Imogene’ is that it cleverly delivers those feelings in an upbeat, feel-good way, while sparking emotions of an old crush or the excitement of the uncharted territory of a new relationship.” - Caitlin Quisenberry
The daydream-like narrative of “Imogene” is being perfectly paired with an animated music video created by one of Hollywood’s most talented cartoonists, Tom Schneiders. To find out more about Tom, visit his website: burdstv.com and follow @burds.tv on Instagram. Caitlin sought out his style to give “Imogene” the idiosyncratic nature it deserves. The video was purposely planned to follow the release of the song to give its listeners time to reflect and imagine, before viewing the artist’s interpretations.
Caitlin may be new to Nashville’s scene, but she is no stranger to the public eye. Her time spent in Hollywood landed her leading roles in national commercials along with her most notable role in the ABC TV sitcom, “Blackish”. Although she loved acting, singing was always her true passion. So after recording with Grammy-winning producer Robert Cutarella at age 14, nabbing a Golden Ticket on American Idol at 15, winning Miss Colorado’s Outstanding Teen after singing to a sold-out audience at Denver’s Ellie Caulkins Opera House, she decided to dive even deeper into music and studied classical vocal performance at Pepperdine University.
Beyond this, Caitlin also studied abroad in Lausanne, Switzerland with renowned opera singer Karine Mkrtchyan. Caitlin believes her classical background is what has given her an advantage in the sea of incredibly talented singers. This, paired with the performance opportunities, is what led her into country music. Her Pepperdine vocal coach choose her to sing lead vocals in the Harbor Unplugged bluegrass concert because of the natural country twang she had in her voice. As Caitlin sang with a Nashville band, she knew that country was the direction she wanted to take her music!
Nadia Vaeh's powerful new track "Anxiety," is a reflection on her personal mental health struggles and how she copes with the highs and lows of anxiety. She is donating a portion of the proceeds to MusiCares, an organization focused on providing critical assistance to people in the music industry, and resources that affect the music community’s health and welfare.
Nadia Vaeh brings thought-provoking and inspiring storytelling in her dark and raw new single. Vaeh’s sincere lyrics of her own experiences, combined with the moody and dark undertone of the single, brings a realistic and relatable perspective on mental health. As an advocate, she hopes her music can inspire people to embrace the conversation of mental health and be a reminder that they are not alone.
Atlanta native and IMA "Vox Pop" winner, Nadia Vaeh, found her way into artistry through modeling and an unexpected stint with a local Atlanta circus. She started singing in their productions, but this was not the beginning of her artistic roots.
Nadia’s love of music and singing began at the age of two and was nurtured by her parents who placed her into a traveling youth choir when she was in middle school. She created small productions with the neighborhood kids and her sisters while growing up. Her mother was a poet who passed on her love of words, which later fueled Nadia’s talent as a lyricist. Nadia’s life took an unexpected turn at the age of 17 when she lost her mother to suicide.
She dismantled her high-school band and strayed from songwriting and singing for years, other than the occasional karaoke. After this tragic loss, she went down a path of self-sabotage and destruction and used relationships and partying to ignore her pain. When she finally decided to begin again with artistry, she was a shell of a person and looking to anyone and anything for answers to deal with her heartbreak. “I made a lot of missteps when I first began my career and had to learn a lot of things the hard way.”
With her endless resilience, she has grown into a performer, has had her music recently played on international radio, and is looking forward to sharing more of her music here in the U.S. and around the world.
