Aderyn - Sirintip - Addi John - Steve & Ginie Jackson - Sandhouse - Nouvelle Vague Feat. Beth Hirsch

Aderyn - Hot Pink! (EP).

Welsh alternative pop artist 'Aderyn' today (September 30) releases her much anticipated and gorgeous 'Hot Pink!' EP and also shares the new 'Victorians' single & video. Beehive Candy have pretty much loved every song Aderyn has released, the new EP really is a breath of fresh air.

Aderyn tells us: Hot Pink! is my colourful, chaotic confessional diary of a life-altering breakup, told through four indie pop songs. It’s an emotional rollercoaster, with each song exploring a different stage of post-relationship grief - from wanting reassurance, to bitterness, anger, rumination and, eventually, acceptance. I wanted to make a record that a girl going through a breakup could put on and feel all the feelings along with me. Following my EP 'Foreverever', it pushes my diaristic songwriting into new and more experimental territory, with swagger, anger, humour and plenty of glitter along the way.

I recorded the EP in West Wales with Gethin Pearson, and we really let the songs dictate where we went sonically. The first thing we did in the studio was create a lo-fi electronic drum beat and Casio synth for Victorians, which completely took us by surprise because my music has always been so rooted in a live-band sound. I loved having the opportunity to push myself into new territory and explore different genres without losing the personality of the songs.


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Photo - Apiwich

Sirintip - Lotus.

Swedish-Thai artist and composer Sirintip releases "Lotus" ahead of  the new album "White Lilies" (due out October 30). Built around a recording Sirintip made of a Mor Lam ensemble in northeastern Thailand in 2015 for her debut EP, “Lotus” reaches into memory, ancestry, and the spiritual world she grew up with. 

For the accompanying music video, she returned to her father’s childhood neighborhood in old Bangkok, along the Chao Phraya River—a place deeply connected to her family for generations. As she puts it, “It felt like the right place to tell a story about where we come from and what we choose to grow into.”

You may recognize Sirintip from her 2018 GroundUP debut, Tribus, produced by Michael League (Snarky Puppy) and featuring Mark Guiliana, or her self-produced Carbon (2022, Ropeadope), which transformed climate data and environmental research into music. That outward curiosity continued into multidisciplinary work exploring the natural world, including Mycelium, her ongoing interdisciplinary project developed through firsthand research alongside plankton and fungi scientists, exploring the connections between microorganisms, ecosystems, and our own lives.

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Addi John - Love & Misfortunes (EP).

Canadian artist Addi John unveils his new EP, Love & Misfortunes, a deeply personal collection about loss, family, change, and learning to move forward. Entirely produced, performed, and mixed by Addi himself, the seven-track project emerged from a period of upheaval and ultimately centres around a simple but hard-earned realization: everything changes, and that’s okay.

The larger record began taking shape after Addi lost his father three years ago. Within six months, his mother and brother had moved out of the country and his former band, Lost in Japan, had broken up. Faced with several major changes at once, he turned to music as a way of processing them, writing songs that explore where different members of his family found themselves following his father’s passing.

“I want people to feel as if they’re not alone and to have a sense of hope for the future,” Addi shares. “The hope I want them to see is that change can be scary but, in order for us to grow, we need to accept that everything changes.”

That sense of hope takes a more energetic form on the title track, “Love & Misfortunes,” an indie-pop outlier inspired by an unlikely combination of a wedding and Two Door Cinema Club’s “What You Know.” After hearing the song at the wedding of two close friends, Addi was reminded how much he loved its energy and challenged himself to capture a similar feeling. The resulting song, somewhat ironically, follows a couple in the aftermath of a fight, uncertain whether their relationship will survive. 

Addi John · Love & Misfortunes

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Steve & Ginie Jackson - Make You Sing.

Montreal folk trio Steve & Ginie Jackson have released their new single, “Make You Sing,” an uplifting folk anthem inspired by the true story of how Steve Viau and Virginie St-Louis Grégoire met, fell in love, started a band and built a life together on the road.

Driven by warm vocal harmonies, spirited acoustic instrumentation and an irresistible sing-along chorus, “Make You Sing” traces the pair’s journey from meeting at a show and sharing their first drink to forming a band, climbing into a van and traveling mile after mile to bring their songs to audiences around the world.

The song’s affectionate refrain—“I want the whole world to hear your voice / I’d do anything just to make you sing”—captures the encouragement and shared sense of purpose at the heart of both the band and the couple’s relationship.

“Make You Sing” offers another glimpse into Steve & Ginie Jackson’s upcoming album, Nothing Is Real, arriving in January 2027. Produced in collaboration with Pete Bernhard of The Devil Makes Three, the album follows the recently released single “Bloodshot Eyes,” which transformed the humor and regret of an unforgettable drunken walk home into a lively folk sing-along.

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Photo - Hannah Jane Murrell

Sandhouse - Gasoline.

South London duo Sandhouse today announce their second EP Pollyanna, out 30th October via Broke Records, and share new single 'Gasoline' ahead of tour dates with MOULD next month. Fresh from touring with US indie-rockers she's green, Sandhouse’s Anna Sutherland and Caspar Holloway make the familiar feel sinister on 'Gasoline', pairing warped indie rock with strange, visceral imagery to evoke a relationship where affection and cruelty have become difficult to untangle.

The music follows an equally uneasy logic, its opening warmth unsettled by eerie textures and unexpected production flourishes. "I need to fight / but you look so good," Sutherland sings as the track spirals into a prolonged, claustrophobic outro. Produced by Sandhouse's Caspar Holloway and mixed by Nathan Boddy (Nilüfer Yanya, James Blake, PinkPantheress), 'Gasoline' features bass and drums recorded by Ben Hillier (Blur, Depeche Mode, Nadine Shah).

Of the new single, the band said: "Gasoline is about being trapped in a relationship that feeds on the softest, most fragile parts of yourself, and how realising this after leaving tarnishes memories you once treasured.

"Whilst writing this song we spoke a lot about this image of people having a fantastic day at the beach, looking closer and realising that all their food is mouldy, the ice cream is covered in ants, and the seagulls all have the plague. We wanted the start of the song to reflect the feeling of a perfect day underlined with the ominous feeling that something is not quite right. The chorus is meant to be a moment of clarity before the long outro which musically is representing this idea that you’re trapped. Something about it feels good but you also want it to end."

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Photo - Linda Bujoli

Nouvelle Vague Feat. Beth Hirsch - A Question of Lust.

"A Question of Lust" is perhaps the most fragile and intimate song in Depeche Mode’s catalogue — a 1986 track that balances entirely on the edge between desire and vulnerability. 

To interpret it, one choice felt inevitable: Beth Hirsch, whose voice had illuminated Air’s Moon Safari and etched itself into the memory of an entire generation. 

In a stripped-back bossa nova arrangement, free of artifice, her voice magnifies the song to its purest core. One of the most beautiful moments on Nouvelle Vague's forthcoming record A Date with Depeche Mode (out October 30 on Kwaidan Records / [PIAS] Recordings). 

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Rachel Bochner - Tanjeryne - Full Flower Moon Band - Stevie Wonder

Photo - Smiles Meyer

Rachel Bochner - I Guess A Sure Thing Couldn’t Go Down Gently (Album).

Brooklyn-based artist Rachel Bochner has built a reputation for sharp, emotionally charged indie-pop that cuts straight to the core. Since her debut, she’s carved out a space defined by candid lyricism and an unflinching willingness to explore the messier edges of love, identity and self-discovery. Now, she brings those ideas together on her new album, I Guess A Sure Thing Couldn’t Go Down Gently, a deeply personal dissection of a relationship ending and everything that surfaced in its aftermath.

“In short, ‘I Guess A Sure Thing Couldn’t Go Down Gently’ is a break up album and my dissection of how it happened. As break ups tend to be, the record is complicated and far from concise (very in line with its mouthful of a title),” Bochner explains. “Written after the implosion of my long term relationship with a man, the album orbits my queer identity’s entanglement with insurmountable guilt, revelatory grief, and the start of complex acceptance.”

That period brought two seemingly opposing experiences into Bochner’s life at once. The devastation of losing a relationship existed alongside the excitement of beginning to recognize herself more fully. She shares, “In the midst of this devastating dissolution, I was experiencing a paradoxical truth: immense grief and immense joy. For the first time in my life, I had a glimpse of my authentic self: a euphoric revelation, entirely magnetic and addictive. But how long can one dance around the dissonance until it becomes deafening?”

Those contradictions run throughout I Guess A Sure Thing Couldn’t Go Down Gently, with Bochner examining not only what happened, but the stories we tell ourselves when trying to make sense of the damage left behind. 

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Tanjeryne - City Girls.

After teasing her forthcoming album Leather & Denim in 2025 with the wistful single “Storyteller,” followed this past summer with the cheeky “God’s Problem,” featuring acoustic duo The Western Thistles, Tanjeryne once again displays her distinctive musical vision on "City Girls," out today as a single on Bandcamp and streaming services.

The smokey atmosphere on "City Girls" is accentuated by Dave Babcock’s sultry saxophone and underscores the timeless sound of Leather & Denim, which blends classic country with hints of jazz, soul and folk-pop. The album will be out on Oct. 23. As a singer-songwriter who has emerged from Edmonton, Alberta’s vibrant music scene, Tanjeryne teamed up with producer Mallory Chipman and some of the city’s most accomplished musicians to create the nostalgic feel of Leather & Denim, although a deeper listen reveals messages of women’s empowerment that directly reflect our current times.

Tanjeryne says, “I wrote ‘City Girls’ 10 years ago when I was going to university, living alone for the first time. I had some really inspiring, dedicated women around me. We were all living downtown, going to school and working part-time jobs. We were passionate about making the world a better place and seeing real change, and we felt like we could be a part of that change.

"‘City Girls’ is a celebration of the fact that, as women, we have so many opportunities in this modern world to make an impact and live beyond the norms that our grandmothers did. I’ve been humbled and jaded since writing it, but the sentiment remains. I hope that when girls hear it, they’re inspired to dare to dream.”

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Full Flower Moon Band - Endless Summer.

Full Flower Moon Band, the project of Australian songwriter, guitarist and frontwoman Kate ‘Babyshakes’ Dillon, returned with a new single “Endless Summer” a few days ago, ahead of two major stadium appearances supporting Foo Fighters in Australia this November. Beginning life as Dillon’s bedroom project before expanding into a formidable live band around her, Full Flower Moon Band has become one of the most distinctive names in contemporary Australian rock. Built around Dillon’s songwriting and singular stage presence, the project draws together heavy guitars, psych-rock swagger and sharp, often darkly comic lyricism.

That momentum now sees Full Flower Moon Band join Foo Fighters at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on November 5 and Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville on November 7. Their first new music of 2026, “Endless Summer” is a much darker proposition than its title initially suggests. Driven by an insistent riff and a sense of increasingly frantic optimism, the track captures the unstable conviction of a manic episode, turning the promise of permanent sunshine into something altogether more unnerving.

“A much darker anthem than the title suggests — ‘Endless Summer’ is the voice of a manic episode. This hopeless, frantic optimism is summarised in the chorus lyric, ‘you can have an endless summer, anytime the sun comes out’. What began as a simple instrumental track is now an unnerving battle cry.” — Kate ‘Babyshakes’ Dillon

The single follows a breakthrough period for Dillon and Full Flower Moon Band. Third album Megaflower debuted at #1 on the ARIA Australian Album Chart and #6 on the ARIA Vinyl Chart, selling out its initial vinyl pressing in just one week.

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Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life 50th (EP).

This week, legendary singer, songwriter, musician, producer and activist Stevie Wonder celebrates the 50th anniversary of Songs in the Key of Life with a four-song EP featuring previously unreleased recordings from the album’s sessions: “It’s Easier,” “My Life Story of Love,” “I Can See the Sun In Late December,” and “I’m Into Livin’.” The release opens a new chapter in the story of a landmark album that reshaped modern music, offering listeners a deeper look into the imagination and musical exploration behind one of Wonder’s defining creative periods.

Personally curated by Stevie Wonder, the recordings were recently mixed for this EP by the album’s original recording and mixing engineers, John Fischbach and Gary O Adante. Adante was credited on the original LP as Gary Olazabal.

At 4:54 a.m., as the final studio session for Songs in the Key of Life came to a close, Nathan Watts, Stevie’s longtime bassist, exclaimed, “Fo’FiftyFo’!” From then on, the phrase signaled the end of a session and became an inside joke for anyone in Stevie’s circle. Now, that hour marks a new beginning as four previously unreleased recordings reach the world, connecting the album’s creation with its next chapter.

“We’ve lived with Songs in the Key of Life for fifty years, but there’s still more to hear,” says Wonder. “We didn’t add these songs to the album, but they were part of what I was feeling and discovering as we made it. They bring me back to that time in my life, and now they get to become part of yours.”

Bitw - Angela Easterling - Takeda - Winona Oak - Oliver Marson feat. Sharon Van Etten - Libby Ember

Bitw - Hen Dro.

The second single from Bitw's forthcoming album Gaddo Glaw sees Bitw joined by longtime collaborator Chwaer Fawr (Mari Morgan), as she shares the microphone in what can only be described as a duet. Ostensibly a generic pop song about a doomed relationship, the lyrics take on an altogether darker and more pessimistic tone in the album's ominous context.

B-side Cofio Bob Tro is an almost sickeningly cheesy other side of the coin, as Gruff lists a catalogue of bad memories, never quite revealing if they’re stated as grumbles or as regrets. Mari once again provides backing vocals, this time alongside Gwion Llewelyn, with Stephen Black on sax.

Bitw is the solo project of Welsh musician Gruff ab Arwel. A committed DIY artist, he has built a career of sorts on his own terms, creating lo-fi art pop (not his description) that takes itself seriously without taking himself too seriously. Now in his mid-thirties, Gruff has made the seamless transition from failing musician to failed musician, and is finally enjoying the freedom that comes with having nothing left to prove.

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Photo - Sandlin Gaither

Angela Easterling - Songs From The Knoxville Project (Album).

Angela Easterling has spent six albums proving she’s one of South Carolina’s best songwriters. Her most recent album, “Witness” was chosen by American Songwriter Magazine as a Top 24 Album of the Year, she is a four-time Kerrville New Folk Finalist, and has had her work praised in No Depression, Americana UK, Oxford American and more.

But her new album, “Songs From The Knoxville Project,” isn’t just a collection of more well-written, passionately delivered songs. It’s a story straight from her ancestors; a haunting tale buoyed by more than a century of Appalachian folk. It’s a Civil War tale without any literal battles but plenty of fighting. It’s a celebration of hope in times of hopelessness, and it brims with the incisive eye of a songwriter and the passion of someone with this story in their blood.

To tell this story, Easterling dove deep into the folk music of the South, eschewing drums entirely, stripping away most of the electric guitars and telling the tale with richly arranged mandolin, fiddle and acoustic guitars. She reached out to the Southern music community and brought in some of its best singers and instrumentalists, from former Emmylou Harris vocalist Fayssoux McLean and Americana star Will Kimbrough to Carolina greats like Darby Wilcox, Elizabeth McCorvey, Admiral Radio, and Audrey Neel and Molly Johnson of the bluegrass trio, The Wilder Flower. 

And it was SC musicians who created this evocative, rustic backdrop, including Sam Kruer on bass, Matt Purinton on mandolin, Robert Gowan on fiddle, and Angela’s musical/life partner Brandon Turner playing multiple guitars, banjo and dobro. The album was expertly co-produced by Turner and Ian Guthrie and recorded in SC at Studio 101.

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Takeda - Lion's Den.

Norwich (England) Folk-Grunge pioneers Takeda return with ‘Lion’s Den’ out today, September 25th 2026, their most visceral single to date. The track is the first to be taken from the band’s forthcoming second studio album, which arrives in 2027 via Drongo Records.

Since forming in 2022, Takeda have forged a distinctive sound built from unlikely contrasts: intricate folk, Bert Janch-influenced fingerpick guitar set against crushing riffs, fuzz drenched guitars and heavy breakdowns, marrying authentic British and American folk sounds and techniques with heavy rock and grunge. The result is music that is difficult to categorise - and deliberately so, breaking ground in a way that’s not been done before, achieved entirely on an acoustic guitar.

“When we are arranging songs together, the moment we are able to firmly pin something we are doing to somebody else’s music, we tend to suddenly feel disinterested and the song usually gets binned,” says vocalist and songwriter Josh Harrison. “We are pretty thirsty to sound like nothing but Takeda.”

Years spent in a doomsday cult coloured Harrison’s imagery and deeply informed Takeda’s music. Their debut album ‘In Venus’ Train’ chronicled the painful process of breaking away from that past whilst Lion’s Den looks beyond the escape itself, and instead confronts the anger, resentment and sense of manipulation and betrayal left in its wake.

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Winona Oak - Next Mistake (feat. Maye).

Swedish singer-songwriter Winona Oak has shared a further glimpse into her second album with new single ‘Next Mistake’ featuring Maye, taken from her forthcoming album ‘Bloom’ released on 23rd October via Nettwerk. 

On new single ‘Next Mistake’, Winona explores the magnetic tension of wanting someone whilst trying and knowing to stay away. Featuring Latin artist Maye, the two vocals bring the push and pull to life, backed by sweeping synths that build to a euphoric chorus. 
 
Winona says, “The line in ‘Next Mistake’ “I go where you don’t” captures that instinct to run in the opposite direction when a connection feels almost too intense, knowing exactly where it could lead. The track captures the thrill, fear and inevitability of being drawn towards someone you know might be your next mistake.”
 
Maye says, “When I heard the first draft of ‘Next Mistake’ I was immediately captivated by Winona's mesmerizing vocals and I knew I wanted to be a part of it somehow. I love the dichotomy of writing my verse in Spanish, because I feel like it really compliments the song, and was a way for both of us to stay true to our identities." 

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Photo - Alex Amoros

Oliver Marson - Christina (feat. Sharon Van Etten).

London-based art-pop singer-songwriter Oliver Marson shares a new collaborative single with Sharon Van Etten, 'Christina'. The new track arrives with a video directed by Sofía Boriosi, starring Avani Gregg and Abraham Lewis. Written while Marson was touring Europe in the summer of 2021, 'Christina' was inspired by a fleeting encounter following a show in Prague. Having instinctively dodged an unexpected kiss, Marson began the song the following day in Linz.

Its titular character grew to represent the people who briefly pass through our lives. "'Christina' as a character represents that exact feeling," Marson explains. "It is the people who drift in and out of your world, the friends who come and go, and the bittersweet weight of moments that are over before you can fully hold onto them. The track is ultimately about that deep sense of longing and nostalgia for good times that have already slipped away."

Originally conceived as a darker, Depeche Mode-esque composition, the track was subsequently reshaped alongside longtime producer Josh Rumble and Kirin J Callinan, who encouraged Marson to embrace something brighter and more expansive  - with Charles Cave of White Lies contributing fretless bass.

"Because of the emotional nature of the song, I could only think of one person who could sing Christina, and that was Sharon," says Marson. A longtime admirer of Van Etten’s work, he approached her directly via Instagram after being moved to tears by her performance of "Seventeen" at Primavera Sound. "Her voice brought a rawness and emotional weight that I simply couldn’t have reached on my own."

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Libby Ember - Shoes.

Continuing to explore the emotional complexities of relationships with striking honesty, Montreal singer-songwriter Libby Ember shares “Shoes,” a vulnerable and melancholic indie-folk single about realizing you may be the only person still trying to move a relationship forward. Stripped of drums and built around an understated arrangement, the track places Libby’s words firmly at the centre, capturing the exhaustion that comes from being ready to take the next step while someone else remains standing still.

Inspired by a relationship where Libby felt increasingly responsible for creating progress, “Shoes” transforms that imbalance into a simple but resonant metaphor. Throughout the song, putting on her shoes represents more than getting ready to leave the house; it becomes an expression of willingness to show up, put in the work, and actively pursue the life and relationship she wants.

“I decided to name the song ‘Shoes’ despite the fact that I don’t repeat it very often in the song, since the shoes are a metaphor for my efforts,” Libby explains. “If I’ve got my shoes on, it means I’m ready to go out and work for what I want or work towards bettering a relationship.”

Rather than dramatizing that disconnect, “Shoes” sits quietly inside it. The song captures the vulnerable realization that wanting a relationship to move forward is not enough when the effort required to sustain it has become one-sided. In keeping the emotion restrained, Libby allows the frustration, sadness, and honesty of that realization to emerge naturally.

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Lord Sonny the Unifier - FEART - Blank Instrument - Holly Wild - Miko Marks - Shane Pendergast

Lord Sonny the Unifier - The Escape Plan Handbook (Album).

Brooklyn-based purveyor of brazen, psych-tinged rock n' roll and biker punk, Lord Sonny the Unifier, returns with his most brazen and raw offering yet on new album "The Escape Plan Handbook". Staying true to his trademark radical honesty, this release is a literal daredevil that boldly captures collective frustrations and the cultural zeitgeist like lightning in a bottle. Lord Sonny the Unifier is the artistic brainchild of Greg Jiritano, multi-instrumentalist musician, vocalist, lyricist, painter, biker, rebel and a downright nuisance to the uninspired status quo. 

"The Escape Plan Handbook" is an eclectic sonic blast that will appeal to fans of Viagra Boys, The Lennon Claypool Delirium, Ty Segall, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Motorhead, The Beatles and Jack White. In other words, expect dark storytelling and gritty, untethered rock. Greg Jiritano happily revels in pure, uncut menace with diabolical vocals, grunts and screams, expressing his frustrations with aplomb.

"When I was working on this album I kept thinking: Keep it dirty...and real. All analog, tube amps and wild, near incoherent synths from the early 70's, like a very used Motorcycle's vibes. I kept thinking about those times that don't exist anymore, before the internet and social media when people could leave for a while and nobody knew where they were. No way at all to track you down. Even just a walk down the road, or a weekend vanish. The freedom in that, which was subconsciously guiding us. It was in the superconscious, in the Archetype of humanity, that unbridle freedom. In America it was easier to live then, for a lot of people. In the 60's and 70's rent was cheap, food was cheap, even minimum wage covered the basics. There wasn't an undercurrent of fear for basic survival which forces us to do things we don't really want, like spend most of our day at a shi66y job with no reward at the end of the day or week.   

I was thinking of those times, thinking of really cool woman in their cutoff shorts and all of us meeting at hidden spots many days drives from home to a wilder uninhabited America. Some in Vans, some on motorcycles, some in small Campervans. This is The Escape Plan. Iconoclasts who disregard the day to day politics and realities of daily life who say, I see you and don't accept an iota of it. I disregard all of you and I'm gonna go this way with my tribe, and we are the happy ones here, and you aught to be us. You, including the ones in power and the ones trapped in the day to day of your own making. You want to be us. All the songs on this album were dreamt up thinking of that world, of those people, of those times, written from the perspective of being either  IN IT or of looking AT IT from the outside."

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FEART - a ​boy can dream.

We don't know much about FEART (pronounced 'fear-t') beyond the info below and that he is ​an Amsterdam-based ​Scottish indie artist. The featured song however is something quite special, exuding a raw emotional feeling without any self indulgent overtones, allowing the listener to be drawn into a shared experience, something we might simply relate to today or through past memories. 

This ​single ​was ​written, ​recorded, and produced ​by the solo Scottish artist known ​as FEART. It's a ​rich, ​analogue track ​with ​a somber and ​melancholic undertone.

The ​second single ​'a ​boy can dream', was released yesterday 25 September, from ​the ​upcoming full-length LP 'bonnie ​mourn'. Musically it's an intriguing mixture of alternative acoustic, along with some beautifully placed ​orchestral arrangement.

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Blank Instrument - Know Nothing.

Blank Instrument, the musical project of Boorloo/Perth-based singer-songwriter Kim Franklin, whose new single, ‘Know Nothing’, was released yesterday  Friday, September 25. This track marks the third single from her forthcoming debut album, ‘Jumping at Ghosts’, which is out in just a month's time on Friday, October 23.

As the third single from ‘Jumping at Ghosts’, ‘Know Nothing’ continues Blank Instrument’s deeply personal songwriting journey while shifting the focus more directly onto Franklin herself. Warm Hammond organ, acoustic guitar and subtle vocal harmonies create a reflective country-folk atmosphere, while lively drums add a brighter, more buoyant edge.

Where earlier singles ‘Brand New’ and ‘Green and Blue’ were shaped in part by the memory of her late friend Julie, whose generosity continued after her passing and helped fund the project, ‘Know Nothing’ turns inward, exploring Franklin’s relationship with intuition, perfectionism and decision-making.  Inspired by her tendency to search for the “right” choice, the track reflects a shift in mindset as she learns to accept uncertainty and embrace the idea that there can be several workable paths rather than one perfect answer. Franklin states:

"Some decisions aren’t simple or easy. I've struggled with the idea of making the ‘right’ decision. This is, I've realised recently, because I'm a perfectionist. While it's often seen as a positive trait and the perfect job interview answer, living with it can be difficult. There is no amount of information that can make a decision easier, when you’re looking for a level of certainty that’s impossible to find."

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Holly Wild - So Annoying.

Sydney-based artist Holly Wild channels the jealousy of an annoyingly perfect friend into a new sarcastic, punchy indie-pop rock single, ‘So Annoying’, out this weekend alongside an accompanying music video. The single comes ahead of her debut album 'Technicolour', out Friday, October 16. Since releasing her debut single in 2021, Holly Wild has built an array of music, television and international collaborations, working with highly acclaimed industry talents including producer David Arkwright (James Arthur, Teddy Swims, Katelyn Tarver) and Australian ARIA chart-topper Jolyon Petch, demonstrating her growing industry recognition. 

Now turning that growing experience towards a punchier, more playful side of her sound, Holly Wild brings a garage-rock edge to ‘So Annoying’. Distorted electric guitar riffs and powerful drums collide with catchy, lo-fi spoken-word vocals, before gritty vocals push the track into a slightly chaotic explosion of raspy frustration and upbeat energy.  

'So Annoying' uses playfulness and exaggerated sarcasm to capture the envious feeling of having a friend who is effortlessly perfect. It combines internal feelings and critiques to reflect pettiness and jealousy, focusing on the self-awareness and irrationality of knowing how ridiculous and unhinged it may be. Wild takes this jealousy and turns it into a sarcastic and funny commentary on the envy that isn’t always shared. As Holly Wild shares:

"’So Annoying’ is about that one friend who makes everything look way too easy... gorgeous, unbothered, life just falling into place. My co-writer and I got a bit ridiculous imagining every petty thought you could have about her, and somewhere in all that laughing, the song showed up. I like to think of it as the anthem for 'friend-vy'... the jealousy nobody likes admitting to."

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Photo - Karen Santos

Miko Marks - Hell or High Water.

Miko Marks releases “Hell or High Water,” the deeply personal title track from her forthcoming LP Hell Or High Water, due October 30 via Redtone Records. Drawing from the losses and struggles that have shaped her life, Marks looks to the wisdom she has gained, the people she has loved, and the ancestors she carries with her as sources of strength to keep moving forward.

The song reaches back to Marks’ roots in Flint, Michigan, a city she remembers thriving during her youth but has since watched struggle, with much of her family still there. Her own life has brought profound loss as well, including the deaths of her mother and sister and the end of her 29-year marriage. As grief accumulated, Marks found herself struggling with depression and isolation and trying to escape sadness she could not outrun.

“I lost my way and tried to drown my sadness and grief to no avail,” Marks shares. “Depression kicked in and isolation was becoming a friend. Through support and help, I was able to climb out of a self-imposed misery and find my joy again.” That journey takes on powerful symbolism throughout “Hell or High Water.” The “stone in my pocket” Marks sings of represents the wisdom and inner strength she carries with her, while the “spirits all around me” are her ancestors and loved ones whose presence reminds her to keep moving forward.

“Perseverance could be my middle name,” Marks explains. “Despite my willingness to give up, I have not. I have a ‘stone in my pocket’ that I carry for wisdom and inner strength. The ‘spirits all around me’ are my ancestors, loved ones, and they encourage me to keep going even when things are not as I believe they should be. I will continue to make it through, and I’ll press on through whatever comes my way.”

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Photo - Justin Rix

Shane Pendergast - Jack Pine.

Prince Edward Island singer-songwriter Shane Pendergast shares “Jack Pine,” an introspective yet uplifting folk song inspired by the rugged resilience of its namesake tree. Rooted in earthy imagery, live instrumentation, and Pendergast’s deep connection to the landscape and literary traditions of Prince Edward Island, the track finds beauty in adapting to difficult surroundings without losing sight of who you are. It’s the title track from his upcoming fifth album, Jack Pine, set for release on October 23rd, 2026.

The song takes inspiration from Pendergast’s longstanding fascination with jack pines: hardy, unconventional trees capable of growing in barren and unforgiving ground. Their ability to bend, adapt, and assume unexpected forms offered a natural reflection of ideas that have increasingly found their way into his songwriting.

That connection is also rooted in the work of legendary Prince Edward Island poet Milton Acorn, whose writing about the tree particularly resonated with Pendergast. “The Jack pine grows to any shape that suits the light, suits the winds, suits itself,” Acorn wrote, capturing the same rugged individualism that drew Pendergast to the image.

Throughout the song, the Jack pine becomes more than a piece of the Maritime landscape. Its bent branches and ability to withstand difficult conditions offer a metaphor for resilience, adaptability, and the tension between yielding to outside forces and holding onto something essential within yourself.

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Resa Saffa Park - Big Little Lions - Disgusting Sisters - Rosina Cove - Living Hour - Lottie McLeod

Photo - Henriette Sagjord

Resa Saffa Park - Standing Still.

Emerging cinematic indie singer/songwriter Resa Saffa Park releases her new single 'Standing Still', the latest glimpse of her forthcoming album Kendra, out 6 November via Ja. Group. Wrapped in smoky production, softly echoing guitars and an unhurried groove, 'Standing Still' wrestles with inertia, slowly gathering emotional tension. 

Speaking about the song, Resa Saffa Park said: "Standing Still is a song about the fear of stagnation and a fading sense of self-worth. It's about how even simple things can start to feel threatening when you lose movement and direction."

A graduate of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, Resa returned to her home city of Oslo to write her new album Kendra. Written largely in her apartment over the course of a year, the album finds her paying closer attention to the people around her. Across twelve songs, she keeps returning to the same question: "how do we understand ourselves through other people?"

Cinematic indie steeped in jazz, trip-hop, noir-pop and soul, Resa Saffa Park's music sits at a distinctive intersection of influences, in the orbit of Tamino, Michelle Gurevich and Portishead, with inspiration drawn from Billie Holiday, Chet Baker, Nirvana, Mitski and Julia Jacklin.

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Big Little Lions - No One Is Mad At You.

Big Little Lions continue to release monthly singles & Beehive Candy are starting to run out of new things to say, except they are on one incredible roll of creativity this year. September's song is for anyone who has the underlying feeling that they are trouble and someone is mad at them. It's nice to be reminded that this is probably not the case and we hope this will give the listeners a break from any critical self talk.

For those new to them... Big Little Lions are an award winning duo who were born out of a collaboration that won them a JUNO Award in 2014. Since then they have been cranking out infectious folk pop songs that are jam-packed with emotion and tight harmonies that sound like the product of two people working side-by-side instead of living in different countries. 

They have released 7 albums to date, which have garnered them awards and nominations including the CFMA Ensemble of the Year, Independent Music Awards Americana Sing of the Year and John Lennon Songwriting Competition Song of the Year. Their critically acclaimed music has appeared on the CBC’s Top 20 and featured on shows like q and Vinyl Cafe. The duo consists of Paul Otten and Helen Austin, both hugely prolific songwriters - their music has been placed in hundreds of movie trailers, ads, network TV shows.

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Photo - Pierpaolo Saccomandi

Disgusting Sisters - Waste Of Space.

Disgusting Sisters have just shared the new single "Waste Of Space" taken from their upcoming debut album Skin & Blisters, which will be released October 30 on Source Records. "Waste Of Space" is another slice of intrigue that explores the world of Disgusting Sisters. As ever with Disgusting Sisters, influences span electro to emo but the horror and the humor are always evident. 

On the new single, Disgusting Sisters say - “'Waste of Space' is about forgetting someone after a breakup, like your brain is a hard drive that’s run out of storage. All the unused data gets wiped and the memories are gone. You were never worth the upgrade - you were just a waste of space"

Skin and Blisters: a record that comes good on all the tongue-in-cheek, slightly gruesome yet perpetually entertaining promise that their name - partly a homage to Succession’s Disgusting Brothers; partly a reference to the “bad sisters from Cinderella because we kind of feel like them on stage” - suggests. Across 10 tracks, the pair aim their lasers at hopeless exes and sugar daddies; productivity punishers and the sad drudge of the 9-5. Their delivery is riddled with deadpan absurdity, but at their core, Disgusting Sisters mean every word. “I hope people can relate to the songs because they really come from inside us,” says Josephine. “All the lyrics are inspired by real moments. We're not trying to pretend and I think that's what makes us kind of fresh - we're just being ourselves.”

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Photo -Travis Nesbitt

Rosina Cove - Kenwood.
 
Rosina Cove is an Edmonton, Alberta-based musical collective led by singer-songwriter Peter Stone and close friends Vicky Berg and Drew Malcolm that offers unpretentious Canadiana with a big heart. Debuting in 2023 with the album Someday We Will Make It There, the group is now poised to release the follow-up, Left Of Me, at the start of 2027.

The first single, “Kenwood,” is a prime example of Rosina Cove’s instantly engaging sound, with its blend of bright jangle-pop and breezy folk-rock, highlighted by expressive harmonies and sparkling production, courtesy of Harry Gregg, also a member of Juno nominees Second Hand Dreamcar. Peter Stone describes it as a song about unexpectedly finding love in the aftermath of an abusive relationship.

“‘Kenwood’ is a reflection on how new love is sometimes built one small moment at a time,” he says. “Learning how someone takes their coffee, sharing stories over cider, listening to records together, and slowly discovering what it feels like to be safe in another person’s presence. What begins as a slow dance of companionship becomes connection, and connection becomes a place to breathe, to soften, and to begin healing from the trauma of what came before.”

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Photo - Lucas Pingitore

Living Hour - Magnet (EP).

Winnipeg's indie rock quintet, Living Hour release their  Magnet EP, this week via Keeled Scales / Paper Bag Records. The four-track release is a collection of b-sides and previously unearthed demos channelled from the work on Someday is Today (2022), and 2025's Internal Drone Infinity, which is one of ten Canadian albums nominated for The Meridian Prize, being awarded next weekend, as part of BreakOut West. The quintet shares a dreamy visualizer for lulling EP track, “Good Afternoon.”

The bundle of phrases that make up the EP are from an incubation period of a lot of TV, projecting movies for work, and general dissociative activities. “I was thinking about how people are magnets if they want to be. Attracting what they think about most, interact with or watch on screens,” says lead singer and lyricist, Sam Sarty. The band previewed with the EP's title-track “Magnet” earlier this month, and Sam expands more on “Half Can,” noting; “At the beginning of the song, I get the image in my mind about a flat, straight ahead, snowy, dark highway going for infinity converging to an ominous black point, high beams flashing sheets of snow blowing across the cement in front of a truck.”

Living Hour transforms the passage of time into something both urgent and sacred. Anchored by Sam Sarty’s vivid lyricism, shaped by years as a projectionist conjuring stories in a dark theater, the band explores the quiet magic hidden in everyday life. The band drifts between dreamy noise rock, folky slowcore, and fuzzy indie-pop, coining a genre all their own: “yearn-core.” With wistful vocals, textural distortion, and poetic detail, Living Hour capture the ache of memory, the mess of feeling, and the beauty in what remains. 


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Photo - Ghina Sari

Lottie McLeod - The Boathouse (EP).

Following an intimate launch party at its namesake venue yesterday, Magan-djin/Brisbane-based singer-songwriter Lottie McLeod now shares her long-awaited The Boathouse EP via ABC Music, a intimate coming-of-age "for people who love to feel deeply" drawing from indie, alt-pop, folk and beyond - signalling a young artist coming out of her shell, stepping into the confidence to follow her own path and express herself openly, making McLeod's much-praised ability to make the personal feel universal stronger than ever. 

It arrives ahead of a newly-announced London headline date in December presented by Joy Promotions expanding her headline EP tour kicking off in October across so-called VIC, NSW & QLD with her hometown date expanding venue due to a rapid sell-out, and off the back of a nomination for the Emerging Artist Award via Australian Women In Music Awards plus mammoth support announcements with The Tullamarines and Peter Garrett & The Alter Egos across November - all live dates below. 

Featuring alt/folk-pop focus track + video 'Thomas' as well as previous singles triple j's #1-most-played track 'Wednesdays at the Waterloo', 'Sunburnt', and 'Important To You', The Boathouse EP is out now via ABC Music.


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