Far Caspian is Irish singer-song writer and producer Joel Johnston. Joel writes, records and performs everything on his albums from his studio in Leeds, UK and tours as a 6-piece band. Far Caspian have released two albums to date and sold out numerous shows across the UK, EU and USA whilst quietly building a streaming audience internationally totalling over 200m streams across platforms. Autoficion is Far Caspian's third album due July 25th.
On his new album Autofiction, Far Caspian’s Joel Johnston is learning to make peace with the cards he’s been dealt. Following his Crohn’s disease diagnosis in 2021, Johnston felt stuck mourning the loss of his life before, and struggling to cope with not only his new reality, but also an ongoing battle with OCD and anxiety. Autofiction finds the Irish musician discovering the tools he needs to keep moving forward. “I’m now at the point where I don't really let it define me,” he says. “The lyric ‘your mind changed from a fear to a song’ [on ‘Lough’] is my expression of freedom: to no longer be held down by something you’ve got used to. I’m trying to not even make sense of it all, but just live in it, and be grateful for the things I do have.”
The lyrics across Autofiction—which dive deep into mental health burdens, self-forgiveness, recovery, and gratitude for supportive, uplifting partnership—are Johnston’s most direct, diaristic and literal to date. As such, it’s also his most vulnerable release yet. “I just wanted to get the message across,” he says. “People will sometimes comment on songs of mine saying ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ I wanted to make a record that was a bit more heard. I even made my vocals louder than I usually do.” Freeing himself from any internal judgments or inhibitions, Johnston wrote songs for Autofiction with a simple motto: “I’m enjoying this right now and therefore it’s good enough.” The process helped him reconnect with the joy of music, the reason he started making it in the first place. It felt like the first time he made an album for himself, rather than an audience. “The fact that I was less self-critical and worried about others' opinions–I think that’s why the lyrics became more straightforward. I didn’t feel the need to dress them up or hide behind something.”
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Nashville songwriter Emily Hines releases "All Of Our Friends" this week, the third single from her debut album These Days, out August 1 via Keeled Scales.
Emily writes: "I wrote this song in a guy's bedroom while he was working in the other room. Fresh out of college, I was naive and earnest, putting everything under a microscope. I’d fallen in love a little too quickly and felt the familiar nausea of an intimacy hangover. The lyrics are mostly questions I knew better than to ask out loud."
About the recording, Hines continues: "One of my favorite parts of the recording was when we asked two of my dearest collaborators and confidants, Madelyn Baier and Liv Greene to come over and add some harmonies. We sat in a crescent and sang into an omni mic. At some point, my dog, Birdy, waltzed in and made her debut in the first verse. Because we’re sentimental and silly, we kept it."
The single comes with a music video directed by Nashville filmmaker Abby Holmes. "When I asked Abby to make a music video with me, she showed up to coffee the next morning with several pages of hand sketched storyboard to show me. I love working with her so much. Her tenacity is incredible. We shot this video in two days with the help and generosity of many friends. It felt a lot like camp. I was so happy to be with everyone, all my anxiety about being on camera melted away."
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| Photo - Rob Smalley |
Manchester based Georgian continues to explore her poised melancholic sound with new single and first new music of the year ‘Learning to Forget’ out now via Heist or Hit.
Formed and fronted by Georgia McKiernan and completed by her band (Harry George, James Poole, James Polglase and Connor Alder), Georgian’s genre fluid output is expansive; a soft bloom of sullen 60s psychedelia and folk horror peppered with Southern Gothic inclinations and a sophisticated jazz leaning. With lyrics that are mournful yet comforting, painted alongside a vivid cinematic landscape, her sound is one that is modern yet nostalgic.
Georgian introduced herself with the singles ‘Big Lips in Leather’ and ‘Soleil’ last year and new track ‘Learning to Forget’ continues to showcase the accomplished musical array of Georgia and her band. Produced and recorded in Amsterdam by Arno Stols (Magenta Studios), it is a track that is both intimately warm yet darkly melancholic, blending progressive rock with dark folk and building in intensity and emotion throughout. The video, filmed in Georgian’s hometown of Manchester and directed by harry right here, sees Georgia struggle through the emotions of re-emerging from a broken relationship.
Georgia says, “’Learning to Forget’ has a true Georgian structure, from starting quite slow, melancholy and reflective, to progressing to a heavy, distorted and powerful sound – expect the unexpected! The song itself discusses heartbreak and how you can be so eager to forget everything when a relationship ends. Even though you don’t want the memories and small reminders of that person, they still happen.”
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| Photo - Sophie Prettyman-Beauchamp |
In Gelli Haha’s latest single “Spit” - only S-words are allowed. The track has underground-club grit, with a strong, consistent bass line and strange electronic effects. On “Spit”, participation is encouraged and surrender is required. The accompanying music video, directed by David Gutel, features Gelli strapped to a spiraling operation board as Gelli Kompany scientists conduct a surreal experiment on her.
A shapeshifter, a sonic acrobat, a performer with one foot in the cosmos and the other in arthouse theatrics, Gelli Haha (pronounced Jelly-Haha) is a space for pure creative chaos that exists somewhere between Studio 54 and Area 51. Gelli’s music thrives on duality: playful but profound, tongue-in-cheek but sincere. Her debut album Switcheroo, out next month via Innovative Leisure, is the soundtrack to the Gelliverse, a sensory adventure sphere created by Gelli.
With a shared taste for off-kilter pop and vintage gear, producer Sean Guerin (of De Lux) joined Gelli in turning freshly-formed demos into a high-voltage experiment, abandoning meticulous structure for something freer and more electrifying. Every song on Switcheroo makes use of a myriad of recording toys; wacky analog effects, such as the Eventide Harmonizer, MXR Pitch Transposer, and various Electrix units, fashion an intentionally flawed and strictly silly texture throughout the album. Switcheroo is an exercise in letting go, an inside joke turned theatrical spectacle.
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