Today, American-born, London-based songwriter Joni shares "Still Young," a new single from her forthcoming debut album, Things I Left Behind, out April 11th via her twin homes of Keeled Scales (North America) and Hand In Hive (in the UK and the rest of the world).
"Still Young", Things I Left Behind's penultimate track, was also the song that kickstarted the process of writing the album and, as such, holds an important place on the record. A brooding four minutes, 'Still Young' is indicative of the charm that Joni exudes: the confessional lyrics, a weary heart, but elevated by an endearing and compelling sense of pop nous that shimmers throughout.
"I originally wrote this song for my little sister who was going through a rough patch," Joni explains, "but then somewhere down the line she got her life together and things were kind of unraveling for me... I remember being on tour and thinking that the perspective had shifted and I was really just singing the song to myself. I think it’s good to be in touch with younger versions of yourself and to carry them with you as you move through life."
When Joni says that “pain is the price you pay for loving someone” it’s coming from a place of deep experience. Having relocated to London from LA with her long-term partner, and closest musical collaborator, the singer-songwriter suddenly found herself thrust into a deeply unsettling break-up, one that left her isolated in a brand new country, and also one that pulled back the curtain on a host of unhealthy patterns she had become accustomed to within the relationship. ============================================================================
Photo - Gabrielle Mary
Vera Ellen - sangria (demo).
2024 was a big year for rising Aotearoa songstress, Vera Ellen. The year found her awarded the coveted Taite Music Prize for her 2023 album ‘Ideal Home Noise’, touring 14 dates across mainland China, and flying through 10 sold-out arena shows around Australia with Crowded House… all while hard at work in the studio with longtime producer and collaborator Ben Lemi, working on what’s to come.
Today Vera shares delicate forbidden-love-anthem ‘sangria (demo)’, A fan-favourite from recent sunny festival sets at Laneway Festival and Twisted Frequency. This track is performed, recorded and mixed by Vera herself, and in keeping with its DIY essence, it’s paired with a self-edited music video.
The video is composed of lo-fi footage captured in earlier days of summer; commemorating time spent on a national tour with fellow Flying Nun alumni Voom and Reb Fountain, as well as being on the road with Aotearoa icons Crowded House, playing to their masses of Australian fans at iconic venues such as the Sydney Opera House.
About the song Vera shares “‘Sangria’ is an ode to all the romantic halfwits who know about wanting something they shouldn't have. The intoxicating mix of alcohol and the familiar scent of an old lover. Saying 'to hell with it!' and doing the thing you mustn't in the name of a particularly inviting moon.”
Sheffield-UK singer/songwriter Sam Scherdel has returned with his delightful new video/track ‘Balloon’ The video paired alongside the track is refreshing, alluring, and enchanting as the visual features Sam and his son for story.
Over the past twelve months he has released a string of successful singles since launching in March 2022, 12 later he releases “Balloon”. Recorded between Doncaster and Nashville Balloon delivers a truly haunting understory lyrically, sung to a countering seismic uplifting Born to Run esque back drop.
His strongest single to date is sure to help make sure 2023 is his biggest year yet. Having began selling out shows across Yorkshire he returns to his native Sheffield to headline the Leadmill March 18th prior to embarking on a string of festival dates across the summer.
Rodney Crowell will release The Chicago Sessions on May 5, 2023, via New West Records. The 10-song set was produced by Jeff Tweedy and recorded by Tom Schick at Wilco’s Loft in Chicago. The masterful, cross-generational collaboration follows Crowell’s acclaimed 2021 album Triage. Hailed by Rolling Stone as a “country music trailblazer” and by The New York Times as an artist whose songwriting “gets better and sharper with age,” Crowell delivers an incisive, engaging collection that balances careful craftsmanship with joyful liberation at every turn. Sounding both fresh and familiar, it’s among Crowell’s very best work.
As Jeff Tweedy puts it, “The way that Rodney writes is deeply connected to a classic era of country songwriters that I’ve always loved. In my estimation, it’s as close as I can get to working with Townes Van Zandt or Felice and Boudleaux Bryant — people who crafted songs with a very specific sensibility. And I like being near that.”
While looking at the cover of The Chicago Sessions, listeners might recognize a familiar callback to Crowell’s 1978 debut, Ain’t Living Long Like This. “In a lot of ways, this album feels like that very first record to me,” Crowell reflects. “When my daughter suggested we lay the artwork out similarly, the connection made perfect sense. There’s something very simple, very innocent about it. It’s just me and the band in a room together, loose and live and having fun.” The Chicago Sessions is indeed a throwback to the legendary Crowell’s early days of making records, but it’s no nostalgia trip. The songs are vital and timely, touching on everything from love and mortality to race and religion, and the performances are nothing short of intoxicating, fueled by raw guitars, honky-tonk piano, and tight, punchy drums. Tweedy wields a light touch as a producer, his influence subtle yet unmistakable. Engineer Tom Schick’s mixes are dynamic and lively, alternately lush and spacious in all the right places, with a spotlight fixed firmly on Crowell’s warm, weathered vocals throughout.
Now Crowell has released the video for the album’s first single, “Everything at Once,” which features footage recorded at The Loft during recording. A co-write with Tweedy, the song walks a tightrope between hope and despair as it playfully wrestles with overstimulation in an overcrowded world. Perhaps no track better encapsulates the spirit of the record. Crowell explains, “It occurred to me that Jeff and I are both songwriters, and we ought to write something together for this album. We could have harmonized on it and gone down an Everly Brothers route, but ultimately we decided to just sing in unison and throw it out there like an all-skate. I love that we didn’t get too precious about it.”
Finding humour in self-loathing, award-winning Vera Ellen is back with the second guitar driven single, ‘Lenny Says’ from her upcoming album, Ideal Home Noise, which is out digitally and on both red or black vinyl and CD on Friday March 31st, 2023 via Flying Nun Records.
"I wrote Lenny Says to make fun of myself at rock bottom. It was actually initially for my album Beat Yr Name (2018) but I felt it was too cheesy at the time. Now, I can see the humour in it. The two verses were genuinely written three years apart — though clearly the angst did not dwindle. It's a track for us whining broke losers with unattainable dreams; having a laugh and a moan at the same time."
The video for 'Lenny Says' is the second instalment in the three-part series was directed and produced by Sports Team, and made with the support of NZ on Air. About the video, Vera Ellen says "If you cried in Carpenter, you will scream in Lenny Says. My band joins me for some diabolical plotting and scheming... but what exactly are we planning?? What we do best of course. And, listen, I won't have any of your judgement. We all do crazy things to maintain our youth and glory!"
Recognised for his baritone vocal, brooding delivery and contemplative lyrics, Todd Dorigo traded big city lights for green wilderness. As the world began to go into lockdown, Todd moved from London to the Swedish woods near Jönköping. Todd has supported bands like The Libertines and also played festivals such as Glastonbury.
Todd Dorigo has released his new EP ‘Another Fantasy’ (March 3 2023). The EP is written and recorded in isolation in the Swedish woods. Sonically, there are echoes of Lee Hazlewood, Scott Walker and Ennio Morricone. There is perhaps even an element of cinema to this EP in the way it builds tension and dreams up dusty western landscapes.
“In the process of questioning my own identity and authenticity, these songs intended to seek out the truth but were soon misled through dream sequences, psychedelic trips and erotic fantasies”. - Todd Dorigo.
A tranquil, subtropical rainforest studio made the perfect setting for Meanjin/Brisbane-based funk/rock octet The Steele Syndicate to record their debut album ‘Weekend’s Coming’. The result is an uplifting, delightfully noise-filled listen brimming with feel-good fun, and is out to enjoy now.
Encompassing the themes of work, love and happiness, 'Weekend's Coming' showcases the band at their raucous and rocking best, with signature doses of funk led by plenty of horns. Each song was recorded using only analogue instruments - so every horn stab, synth note, guitar, organ or kick sound is the real deal. Frontman Steele McMahon divulges:
“I remember tracking the lead guitar line for ‘One Beer (Is Never Enough)’, and having this old Roland Jazz Chorus maxed to the proverbial 11, and there being so much thick noise even when the guitar was not playing, that it sounded like the studio was literally drawing breath.
While it was challenging to utilize only real instruments, in a day where nearly every sound can be achieved with the touch of a button, I think it presented a fun and creative opportunity to embrace limitations, and really allow the nuances and idiosyncrasies of analogue instrumentation to shine.”
The band's feature album opens with the thought-provoking, sway-inducing 'City of Dread'. It sets the scene for next track 'Dance' to steal the spotlight, and amp things up with plenty of brassy fanfare.
"Oh what haunted tune can I bring you?" Uhl asks at the opening of "Haunted Tune," the first single from Channels. Her serpentine melodies and operatic storytelling cascade from there in perfectly executed art pop waves that crash over and over, recalling Kate Bush's The Sensual World or Annie Lennox's Diva or Weyes Blood's more recent work. To be sure, this is really not the kind of thing that works if it's only halfheartedly executed or if the artist is anything but exceptional.
And so here's Uhl: fully going for it and fullly pulling it off, supported by the acrobatic production of Peter Murray (Alela Diane, Lisa Crawley). The melodies are memorable, the arrangements are spot on, and the dramatic effect is consuming. Fans of Liz Fraser's and Cindy Sharp's songs on It'll End in Tears, brace yourselves.
Uhl embodies a different character in each song, "channeling" these narratives. In "Haunted Tune," the narrator seems to be singing from the other side, warning that "you can't fool love and you can't cheat fate," but then coolly posing: "Isn’t it a pity / A quick hand deals and suddenly you’re carried away / With all your mistakes / Can’t lose what wasn’t yours to take."
After recently being nominated for 'Best Alternative Artist' at the 2022 Aotearoa Music Awards, Vera Ellen has released her first new music in over a year! It comes in the audio visual form of instant classic 'Homewrecker'.
"Homewrecker is the personification of my inner demon forcing its way in to create chaos where it senses harmony. I'm my own home wrecker. Ain't we all?" - Vera Ellen
The video, directed by Albert River, and made with the support of NZ on Air, is a cheeky tip-of-the-hat to "The King of Cool" Dean Martin, and his 1983 'Since I Met You Baby' video. The high contrast visuals see Vera cheerfully crooning amongst a cast of gorgeous models, despite the bleak and introspective undertones of the song's lyrics.
"I didn't realise it was my dream to dress as Dean Martin and prance about on a roof until a few months ago. Never give up on even your most current dreams!"
Get swept away by Jade Empress when her powerful electro-pop single 'Madness' came out yesterday October 14. Jade Empress has been gaining steam and collecting accolades over the last few years as a talented songwriter. She was the winner of multiple categories of Songsalive!'s Song Comp in 2017, a finalist in the Australian Songwriters Association Songwriting Contest for three consecutive years, a semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition 2021, a participant in Ben Folds’ 2021 songwriting intensive retreat - all while working as a frontline doctor in rural and remote Australia.
Now, the artist is swapping the stethoscope for a microphone, and is ready to share her second single with the world, named 'Madness'. A soaring piece that celebrates the artist's impressive vocal ability, 'Madness' speaks to embracing the chaos of daily life. Produced by Grammy award-winning Kon Kersting (who's worked with the likes of The Jungle Giants, Tones & I, The Reubens and many more), this is a moving, melancholic pop track with emotive piano, converging in a dramatically swirling melody that uplifts and carries the songwriter's compelling voice to even greater heights.
Written in response to the chaos of her life in recent years, she chose to welcome it rather than fight against it. "Routine has always been important for me. I thought the pandemic was bad. Now, suddenly I'm finding myself working in the Pacific, as a doctor alongside the Australian Defence Force, and living day to day in an environment of civil and political unrest, I truly appreciate uncertainty and a certain kind of daily madness."
Jade Empress has already received enthusiastic support for her first release from Triple J, Double J, as well as commercial and community radio stations. 'Golden Hours' has also been featured on international music blogs including Send Me Yours Ears, Roadie Music, Indie Dock Music Blog (UK), PopMuzik (Sweden).
Listen To BCMR (Beehive Candy Music Radio) streaming 24/7 with all the music featured on Beehive Candy in recent weeks and an eclectic mix of music from days gone by. BCMR-HERE.
Vera Ellen has proven she is unstoppable! She has today released yet another video, this time for album closer and tear-jerker 'Joy'.
“I wrote ‘Joy’ for my nephews and nieces, who forgave me over and over for leaving them to pursue music, and who love me unconditionally. Children are magic.”
The video was filmed by Al Kalyk at the artist's 'It's Your Birthday' listening party in Los Angeles. It was filmed on an iPhone in a single shot and features Vera's backyard and a handful of kind friends. In the footage taken by Vera's mum in the 90’s seen at the end of the video, you can see Vera's sister holding her as a baby and her grandparents and family singing a polish lullaby.
Now, take 2 gallons of Wanda Jackson,2 Gallons of Etta James, a spoonful Howlin' Wolf, a shot of Dick Dale, Add some Cramps and a pint of Nick Curran, mix that all up, shake it, stir it, and light it on fire. The result you get : The Ragged Roses
The Ragged Roses combine the rock & roll spirit of the 1950's with the attitude of modern roots gunslingers. It's a new band, female fronted by Katrien, the embodiment of wild performing art, combining stunning vocals with stunning looks, being backboned by - you can call them although their relative young age and wild raging hearts - veterans of the Belgian roots scene.
Watch out for that slapping, walking, gypsy swinging upright bass and lightning blot guitars, surfing on a wave of groovy drums.
The Ragged Roses are now releasing their Debut album "Do Me Right", containing all self-written original songs and one cover of the great Del Shannon.
Glasgow's The Ninth Wave today announce their second album Heavy Like A Headache will be released on 11th March 2022 via Distiller Records. Alongside the album announcement, the band are releasing their new single "What Makes You A Man" with a stirring black and white accompanying video; the final installment of a trilogy of videos directed by Rianne White.
The new single and album announcement arrives off the back of a sold-out UK tour and a Scottish Album Of The Year nomination for their Faris Badwan (The Horrors)-produced EP ‘Happy Days!’. Heavy Like A Headache is the band's second full length album following their 2019 debut Infancy which garnered widespread critical acclaim and nominations for the AIM Award Album Of The Year and Scottish Album of the Year.
Produced by the band themselves and mixed by Max Heyes (Massive Attack, Doves, Primal Scream), Heavy Like A Headache explores feelings of grief, anxiety, anger and loneliness, and represents the 4-piece's most triumphant and diverse body of work to date.
New single "What Makes You A Man" tackles issues of consent, airing Millie Kidd’s deeply personal lyrics ["I will feel the shame that you don't feel / And I won't feel the same now this is real"] with a heavy, lurching instrumental that seethes with defiance.
Speaking on the release, Millie said: "What Makes You A Man is as claustrophobic as it is cathartic. It’s a journey of self deprecation, and how one event can be such a throwaway meaningless action for one half but be life changing for the other. I don’t want to blame myself for the degrading actions of others anymore - I want to stand up to this shame I hold with me, and recognize that it is not mine, I’m just the one carrying it.
Emerging from an eight-year hiatus, songwriter Gianluca Divirgilio brings his darkest and most introspective thoughts to light with Arctic Plateau’s Songs of Shame. Thought by some to have seen its final days, Arctic Plateau instead became a vehicle for Divirgilio to battle his demons; to chronicle struggle, self-doubt, pain, disillusion, and guilt, and ultimately to allow his scars to take form as Songs of Shame. In doing so he has returned with an album of intimate and powerful performances that serve as the first steps toward a healing that has been decades in the making.
A series of impressions drawn from Divirgilio’s own experiences in the time since the band’s last release The Enemy Inside, this record is a compendium of lost love, missed opportunity, crestfallen remorse, and lasting trauma, self-inflicted and otherwise. It is a deeply personal record that often points its finger at the mirror and winces as it’s reflected back. But in its complex self-exploration it also gains life as a living document affording the artist an opportunity to turn the page, and by accord provides its audience safe space to look to the darkness within, feel the emotion freely, and eventually discover a path through.
The compositions on Songs of Shame mirror the duality of its themes, utilizing the disarmingly upbeat aesthetics of post-punk to balance the often-grim themes contained within the lyrics. They draw from the stark self-reproach of proto-goth, the bare honesty of singer-songwriter music, and the enigmatic sparkle of post-punk to create a strikingly memorable sonic landscape for the listener. Focusing these laments through the lens of something far brighter and more buoyant sows the seeds of healing in a manner that would be far less affecting were they represented in a parallel, dirge-like manner.
While the themes center around the many ghosts that haunt us, it is the music that makes them corporeal and affords the opportunity to create tangible separation, and that is ultimately an act of joy that befits the spirited expression witnessed in the songwriting itself. Songs of Shame is an album that channels sadness and exhibits a tortured soul lay bare, but there is a formidable maturity in its honesty and triumph in its catharsis, giving it the dual quality of lifting the listener up while acknowledging the daunting weight of carrying sorrows through the years.
“Orb Weaver” is a song about comparing myself to the hidden intricacies that I might find on a walk in the woods. I attach most of my memories to what is visually around during a certain time. Sometimes there is a comfort to the natural world and other times there is a harshness. My experiences can almost mirror them. I’d like to think that nature has a way of telling us exactly what we need to hear.
Taken from the forthcoming "Solely”, the sophomore effort by folk guitarist/singer-songwriter Natalie Jane Hill, it is a record of transition. While the Central Texas native’s stunning debut “Azalea” grew from years spent developing a textural narrative voice and idiosyncratic guitar style in the vibrant Blue Ridge Mountains, “Solely” represents a period of inward growth, and an outward push into an expanded sonic palette.
Following a move back to the Austin area in the fall of 2019, just months ahead of the pandemic, Natalie began an intensive period of reflection, and expanded her song-craft’s foundations from the broader themes of nature into the vulnerable intricacies of self-discovery. Along with this process came an openness to external creative input.
Recorded between October 2020-March 2021 to Tascam 8 track in the Lockhart Texas home of producer Jason Chronis (Voxtrot, Tele Novella), these recordings represent Hill’s first incorporation of other musicians into her arrangements, featuring performances by Mat Davidson (Twain) among several other trusted friends. There is a liberating and careful grace in these collaborations, providing strength and color to the upper branches of each song while preserving space for the health of the roots.
US artist Kate Ellis Bluebirds & Rye released on Friday! This is the second single from her impressive sophomore album ‘Spirals’ due out in early 2022; a collection of songs that came out of a process of soul searching "to quiet the thought storms in my head and find my balance in the world," says Kate.
‘Bluebirds And Rye' follows the critically acclaimed and widely playlisted first single Another Way. Also produced by John Reynolds (Sinead O'Connor, Indigo Girls, Damien Dempsey), it is a sweet, poignant and uplifting folk song about a mother’s loving words of advice for her young daughter. In Kate’s words: "I wrote this for my daughter who, like me, is an emotional girl.
This is my letter to her telling her I know what she’s going through, and it can feel hard, but everything’s going to be fine in the end. The song is about recognising the patterns in myself that I can see getting passed on, and the pitfalls of certain emotional pathways that I know from experience you want to avoid. I wanted to tell her: just take a breath and find a moment of rest. All there is is love and peace, everything else is in your head. This is what's important so don’t worry about the other stuff; it’s all going to be ok."
The newest Dull Tools release is the first solo venture from Mike Etten, who you may know from his contributions to PC Worship & to Dougie Poole's recent LPs. Love Wash lands somewhere in between those two projects stylistically, it's a brooding psych-folk LP filled with unconventional arrangement touches, as demonstrated by the rubato swirl of saxophone, synth and acoustic guitar that kicks things off.
Drive was inspired by a late night trip down a country back road, touching dark memories of that ride and wrong turns made in the past. The tune starts with a simple guitar figure that unfolds and winds its way through changes, with a mix of percussion and drum machines bouncing around it. It felt like it lent itself to pedal steel, so I asked Tristan Shepherd (Dougie Poole band) to put down some tremolo-y tracks and a wild fuzzed out solo in the middle that really gave this one its character.
I improvised a lead synth track that I really like too, it has that first-take spontaneity which I tried to capture whenever I could through the whole recording process. Drive feels full of confusion and hope at the same time, with me trying to move towards a more peaceful station, a more loving vision, and accepting that chaos can always be around the next corner.
Ruth Lyon is a singer-songwriter of intense honesty and an impulse to say it how it is. Making a unique brand of ‘baroque-pop’ she bares her soul with courage and conviction - full of stark self-reflection but also a knowing nod to the absurdity of life. She returns to drop her latest single “Lemon Tree” on August 25th, in anticipation of her debut EP “Nothing’s Perfect” expected October 22nd.
In 2019 Ruth released her first single “I’d Give It All” (under the name Ruth Patterson) which received support from 6 Music, Radio X and Spotify editorial. In 2020 Ruth cemented herself as one of the North East’s most important voices, when Sage Gateshead named her Artist-in-Residence. Over the course of the year, despite being thrown into turmoil by the pandemic, Ruth released two more singles, the evocative “Sink or Swim” and “Somebody Else”, for which she received the PRS Woman Make Music award and was named as BBC Intro one to watch in 2021.
Ruth is now taking on her mother’s maiden name, Lyon, as she launches the next chapter of her career. Co-producing with Rhiannon Mair (Laura Marling, LUNA) and Cameron Craig (Amy Winehouse, Katie Melua) Ruth explores her different identities - from the louche rock star, to the bittersweet poet, looking for love and a place in the world. Classically trained but with an eye for the catchy chorus and bright, pop melodies, Ruth sweeps from self-questioning piano ballads and lush string arrangements, to hands-in-the-air indie bangers. With the raw energy of a young disabled person who has constantly had to adapt to life’s twists and turns, her introspective and sometimes droll twist on storytelling brings up questions you never knew you should be asking.
Introducing Vera Ellen’s third single ‘Crack the Whip’. Vera wrote most of this song when she came back to New Zealand from LA at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I was feeling a bit of whiplash from moving countries. I was reflecting a lot on the motions of life, the wheel of fortune and coming to accept that our efforts to control anything are charmingly futile.”
Lyrically, it's a mash up of different points of Vera feeling homesick for New Zealand; when she was missing the nature and culture and people. “I used to work at this pop up called "Wonderworld" on Hollywood Boulevard. No one would ever come in so I would just stand at the counter and look out the window wondering why the hell I came here.”
The accompanying video is made up from home video footage from Wellington Zoo in 1997, and features Vera Ellen, her brother Albert River (who features heavily on the upcoming album, and is also in Vera’s live band), and their Nana. These images are intercut with footage of familiar sights from Vera’s current LA residence; Hollywood and Santa Monica beach.
“My brother and I are very close and we have always had this way of protecting each other. The video kind of turned into a homage to our bond and the deep sadness of being apart.“
Perth, Scotland based 6-piece Parliamo (pronounced Par-Lee-Ammo) today release new single "She's Only Human", lifted from upcoming EP 'The Parliamo Manifesto', out October 7th via Modern Sky (The Coral, The Lathums, Abbie Ozard).
A bracing indie-rock jammer addressing the fragility of mental health, speaking on the release of the new single, the band said: "She’s Only Human is a testament to confusion in confusing times. It discusses the limitations that those with poor mental health can face when it comes to relationships with others and oneself, and ultimately conveys that it’s okay not to be okay."
The band's upcoming debut EP 'The Parliamo Manifesto' is the culmination of over a year's songwriting and is a bold statement of intent from the 6 piece. Employing a charming tongue-in-cheek approach to some of the slightly darker aspects of life which young people face today, the record touches on the complications of religious pressure on "Catholic Guilt", spiralling addiction on "Who Needs a Reason?", mental health on new single "She’s Only Human" and the awkward beauty of young love on lead single "Paul & Barry".
The baggy, swaggering sound of the band and the often darkly humorous nature of the lyrics, stands in stark contrast with some of the subject matter, echoing the band’s propensity for laughing in lieu of crying. In a world of such turmoil and uncertainty, with ‘The Parliamo Manifesto’ the band are aiming to reconcile people with positivity through vibrant, energetic music, whilst providing a relatable commentary on the modern world and the inner workings of the minds of young people.
Written and delivered in the Scottish vernacular, the record offers a somewhat unique perspective on the simultaneously charming and terrifying nature of modern life.
Vera Ellen shares a second sensational single, ‘I Want 2 B Boy’, from the upcoming album ‘It’s Your Birthday’ out October 8th via Flying Nun Records.
‘I Want 2 B Boy’ explores the depths of identity — and the incertitude that can arise from opening a can of this particular brand of worms. Sonically, the track makes immaculate use of synthesizers, and scratches our itch for a spirited sing-a-long. Equal parts triumphant and ambivalent, the sonic delivery oscillates between the two, showcasing Vera’s incredible song-writing prowess.
Vera has said on the track, “Ahh.. the multiple layers of feelings you get when you step into yourself. Joy! Pain! More confusion! You spend your life trying to find your footing and often when you do, you just step into another layer of questioning."
Written and produced by Big Little Lions (Helen Austin/Paul Otten) “Hold On is a dramatically, intense song written from the perspective of someone helping to guide and comfort a friend who is experiencing depression.” We have the pleasure of including the lyrics to the song below as Big Little Lions continue to share another gorgeous monthly release this year!
In the dark corner is where I’ll find you There’s a spark fighting to light the shadows in your soul Heavy heart crawling towards desire You’ve been starved Hungry to find a taste to make you whole feed the void that you control oh Hold on Hang on tight so you can Hold on You’ll have to fight to keep your body off the floor Only then you’ll find the door I’ll cover you While you battle with all your demons Help you through The maze of your mind you feel will never end But I know that you got this oh
Skidders (aka Steve Skidmore) is back with a brand new single taken from the forthcoming studio album Friends & Family Vol.2.
I wrote the song for my wife to appear on volume 2, but rather than wait until it's release, I wanted to publish it earlier, hence the single! But as a love song, and with my vocals, I really could not to it justice - hence the addition of Andrew James' incredible vocals. Together with the bass, mixing and mastering of the amazing Paul Hogg, although a simple song, it is one I am most proud of. I thank Andrew & Paul from the bottom of my heart and I really hope you will like it as much as I do.
Andrew James: Andrew is well know in the Cotswold area of England, and kept everyone sane during the COVID pandemic with his "Stay Sane Sessions" performed live on Facebook and YouTube throughout shutdowns. I was honoured to record guitar for some songs of his songs and Andrew reciprocated with some fab keyboards on Bukechi videos. Check out our cover of Bonnie Raitt's beautiful song I can't make you love me that Andrew lit up with his piano.
Paul Hogg: Paul is an amazing musician, producer, sound engineer and most of all, a lovely friend. Not only these virtues, but he also composes and publishes several genres of music under his name and also that of 'The Ox', the latter being amazing electronica and downtempo music.
Girlpuppy aka Becca Harvey is sharing her new single "Miniature Furniture" through Royal Mountain Records. Written in collaboration with Lunar Vacation and produced by Phoebe Bridgers' co-conspirator Marshall Vore, it's the second track from her debut EP, Swan.
With an opening tour with The Districts already scheduled for October and her first live performance at Chicago’s Riot Fest, girlpuppy's return with "Miniature Furniture" showcases her effortless confessional indie folk, earnestly examining her own emotions and writing beautifully forlorn pop songs that pierce straight through the heart.
Harvey explains, “This song is a culmination of experiences from a summer where I was traveling back and forth to Chicago and Pasadena all whilst coping with a difficult break up. I was having a really tough time dealing with the breakup, but instead of addressing the feelings I was experiencing, I distracted myself with travel and spent time with friends. I often find myself trying to hide from confronting my emotions head on by doing things to keep myself from thinking about how sad I am, so this upbeat song really embodies the fleeting feelings of happiness while also being so depressed.
I associate great memories with this song because I wrote it with two of my friends Grace Repasky and Maggie Geeslin (of Lunar Vacation) and it was such a fun experience. The "miniature furniture" title is a reference to an exhibit at The Art Institute of Chicago that I visited during that summer."
