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AJ Rosales sixth album entitled Phasedrift has just been released. With a slightly more organic approach to production, these songs showcase the diverse palette that he is known for, while venturing into sonic territory that signifies drifting towards a new musical identity. Five singles have been released already: Phosphene, Leitmotif, Happenstance, Wait, and Thunderclouds! You can hear his previous releases: Manifestations, Ultramarine, Resistor, the Earth and Shoal EP, and Daughter Product (Fatigue), which have all garnered critical acclaim.
AJ's style is not easy to classify, but his progressively acoustic tendencies tend to dominate his compositions. His rhythmic, expressive and emotive delivery gets peppered with experimental colors, and an infusion of soulfulness. He draws comparisons to Pete Townshend, Cat Stevens, Nick Drake, and Bob Mould, however he delivers his own unique hybrid sound, blending multiple genres into a cohesive and modern sensibility that sounds like "AJ".
Phasedrift was engineered by Doug McBride at Gravity Studios in Chicago and mastered by Greg Calbi (Lou Reed's Berlin and David Bowie's Young Americans) and Steve Fallone (Evermore by Taylor Swift) at Sterling Sound in Edgewater, NJ. All songs, instruments, and vocals by AJ Rosales.
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Above the Water, the debut album from indie rock/folk band Her Mountain Majesty, is now available on all streaming platforms. With echoes of Alabama Shakes, Hurray for the Riff Raff, and Brandi Carlile, the record delivers a fierce, emotionally charged soundscape rooted in lyrical honesty and soul-stirring grit.
Written and fronted by singer-songwriter Andi Lee Scher, Above the Water is an unflinching portrait of grief, healing, and personal rebirth. Recorded live over just four days at Bear Creek Studio, the album pulses with raw urgency—capturing the energy of a band in perfect sync. From the aching vulnerability of breakout track “Too Hard to Love” to the triumphant closer “Bread,” the album chronicles a journey through the wreckage of an emotionally abusive relationship toward a hard-won sense of self. Along the way, listeners encounter confessional anthems like “Above the Water” and “You Can’t Save Me (Church),” songs that don't just seek resolution—they wrestle, unravel, and rise.
“Above the Water is a celebration of resilience, healing, and a renewed commitment to self after wading through the messiest part of my life,” says Scher. “Many of these songs were written in the middle of the healing process and feel like they revealed themselves to me to tell me what I needed to hear in moments of deep grief, heartache, and uncertainty. Despite its dark undertones, this album serves as a reclamation of self, a rebuilding of life, and a return to the thing I love most – music. As I sing in ‘Made Up My Mind,’ ‘I have weathered all these storms, and by god, I’m gonna sing these songs.’”
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In between Far Caspian’s 2021 debut LP Ways To Get Out and 2023’s acclaimed follow-up The Last Remaining Light, Johnston established his own label–Tiny Library Records–to release music from artists he often collaborates with, including 22° Halo, SOMOH, and Niall Summerton. Shortly after, he also set up his own recording studio in Leeds, UK (his current place of residence), where he produces and mixes for a number of UK-based acts. This work with other artists, while unrelated to the album, proved to be a vital step in the making of Autofiction.
While Far Caspian is performed live as a six-piece, Johnston has spent years writing, producing, and recording a full band production for it all on his own, and that began to take a mental toll. With a mounting feeling of stress and pressure, he nearly decided to quit his own project; but after producing albums for Green Gardens and Ellur, Johnston’s spark for Far Caspian reignited. Newly inspired to enjoy the process, he returned to some demos he had started for Autofiction and completed the majority of the album in January 2025.
Johnston used his new studio experience to approach the making of the album with a fresh mindset: “After producing Ellur, I was able to just say to myself: ‘I’m going to produce this Far Caspian album now. I’m presenting myself with these demos I’ve had for a while. Let me see what I can do with them as a producer, not as a songwriter.’” With influences ranging from Broken Social Scene to the Japanese band Supercar, the instrumentation of Autofiction feels light, textured, and always energetic. It was recorded entirely in Johnston’s studio, where he himself produced, mixed, mastered, and played every instrument heard on the LP.
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