JÁNA - Jack Conman - Sara Watkins - Phogg - DL Rossi

JÁNA - Outsider.

Swedish artist JÁNA has announced her second EP 'Works'. Due for release later this year, the EP follows standalone single "Green" featuring Nigerian-American duo VanJess, and her widely acclaimed (The Fader, Lyrical Lemonade, COLORS) debut EP 'Flowerworks' – both released in 2020. Accompanying the new EP announcement, today JÁNA is also releasing the EP's first single "Outsider".

Co-produced by Little Dragon drummer Erik Bodin, "Outsider" elevates JÁNA's hybrid of alternative pop and bedroom R&B to exciting new levels. Uniting lucid synths with chugging industrial percussion, the song portrays a scenario of feeling lost, or feeling like an "outsider" amidst the fallout of a relationship.

Speaking on the new single, JÁNA said: "The lyrics and melodies came super quickly to me on 'Outsider'. It’s my first “breakup song”. I’m questioning this person, the relationship and myself after a breakup. I’m basically asking this person lots of questions in a “how could you” type of way. There's a sense of frustration, resentment and some sort of sad hope (referring to the second verse) in this song; addressing the feeling that you don’t belong without that person or maybe you lost who you were before ever meeting them."

JÁNA, (aka Stockholm based Johanna Andrén) was introduced to the world via her collaborations with Swedish heavyweights Little Dragon on her debut solo EP 'Flowerworks'. A mediation on relationships in general – as well as a chronicle of one of her own past relationships – The Fader praised its lead single "Wild Roses" for its "lush guitars and jazzy, minimal beats", whilst Lyrical Lemonade described the release as "a memorable debut that’s sure to put JÁNA on the map on a global level".

Majestic Casual Records · JÁNA - Outsider

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Jack Conman - Seventh Sense Libido.

Singer-songwriter Jack Conman’s album Seventh Sense Libido is streaming in full below.

Seventh Sense Libido marries the sexual politics of Cigarettes After Sex with the romanticism of Jeff Buckley & Pete Doherty - cited as Jack’s most cohesive body of work yet. It’s an intimate & reflective album about relationships which, through its honesty, affords the listener their own chance of self-reflection.

The album features singles Come Back In The Room which tells of the emotional push & pull experienced in relationships & Before You Love Me with its strikingly intimate vocal performance. They have received support from BBC Introducing, Amazing Radio & many more. 

With well over a million streams on Spotify for previous single Oxytocin, Jack has enjoyed airplay on BBC Radio 1 & 6Music, performed at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend festival, featured in Clash's coveted Next Wave & gained a loyal following after showcasing on youtube channel COLORS. His music is now getting much attention, particularly in America, Germany & the UK with strong & encouraging streaming figures.

Jack Conman · Seventh Sense Libido

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Sara Watkins - Night Singing.

Sara Watkins of the Grammy-winning groups Nickel Creek and I’m With Her, as well as The Watkins Family Hour will release Under the Pepper Tree on March 26th via New West Records. The 15-song set was produced by Tyler Chester (Sara Bareilles, Margaret Glaspy) and is the follow up to her critically acclaimed 2016 solo album Young In All The Wrong Ways. Created with families in mind, the personal project encompasses songs Sara embraced as a child herself and brings storytelling, solace, and encouragement to the listener, no matter the age. In addition to two stunning original songs, the album includes Sara’s renditions of “Pure Imagination” from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, The Beatles’ “Good Night,” “Moon River” (originally sung by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s), and more. 

Under the Pepper Tree also reunites Sara’s Nickel Creek bandmates Chris Thile and her brother Sean on “Blue Shadows on the Trail” (from the 1986 comedy The Three Amigos), Sara’s I’m With Her bandmates Sarah Jarosz & Aoife O’Donovan on “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” (originally performed by Roy Rogers & Sons of the Pioneers), Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes on Harry Nilsson’s “Blanket for a Sail,” David Garza on Roy Orbison’s “Beautiful Dreamer,” and Sara’s now three-year old daughter on her immensely sweet rendition of The Sound of Music’s “Edelweiss.”

Sara admits that she initially felt conflicted about making a children’s record until she realized that perhaps this album could impact a young listener in the same manner as the music from her own childhood affected her. The nostalgic and gentle Under the Pepper Tree offers a comforting record for those moments as daily rhythms fade into nightly rituals — and when a child’s imagination comes to life. “I want this album to be a place of calm, imagination, and relief,” Sara says. “Some days are perfect and things are a dream and make you feel like a superhero. And some days are just… such a challenge. I feel like this record has a place in both of those days, and I really hope that these recordings find a place in kids’ hearts, and become as special as they are to me.”

Sara sequenced the album’s 15 songs with the vinyl listening experience in mind. After forming the track listing of Side A and Side B, she then crafted transitions between the songs, making each half of the album seamlessly glide by. Sara says, “Although this album can certainly be enjoyed by listening all the way through, very early on in the planning I began thinking of it as something to be taken one side at a time. I imagine someone dropping the needle on side A one night, and side B the next.”

Under the Pepper Tree also features a stunning vinyl package so children can interact with the record in a deeper way. The idea stemmed from the vintage vinyl releases she’s collected for her daughter. “You find some that are really beautiful, and there are some Winnie the Pooh albums that we listen to on a daily basis, not just because of what they sound like, but because of what they look like,” she says. “My daughter will look at the book while I put on the record. The pages don’t tell everything that’s in the song, but that doesn’t matter because sometimes she’s more looking and sometimes she’s more listening. It’s all there, it’s all connected. I want kids to experience my record that way, with all of those senses.”

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Phogg - Sharkness.

The Swedish psyche-rock wonder is defined as Phogg and the band has returned with a new album. An album that has been forged out of pandemic, 30-year crisis and broken hearts. 2020 has not been an easy year for none and Phogg is no exception:

“What does it mean to be a rock band these days? How does it matter? We are all closing in to the dirty thirties. We have ended relationships and people have ended it with us. We have lost treasured memories and have had our computers and hard drives stolen.

We have lost rehearsing spaces and studios, gigs and opportunities. The glory days of Rock have faded away in this pandemic apocalypse’s fart of the times. There is no fun making songs about an allegorical downfall when you are in the middle of it.”

In September 2019, we saw the release of Phoggs second studio album “Mofeto: Mashine Adamkosh”, an album “about robots seizing world domination”, that was well received by the music media community, both domestic and internationally. After the cries of joy in the wakes of “Mofeto”, Phogg took on the challenge to record two albums at the same time. The goal was to work on these albums parallely and release them simultaneously but as it would turn out, that was an extremely stupid decision and the band were inches from mentally burning themselves out.

This week the release of “Sharkness”, the fourth and the last single before the highly anticipated third album, “The Sharkness”, premiering the 16th of April.

“Sharkness, the title track of our new album, came to be while recording the album. ‘Sharkness’ means to hold a kind of self-destructive self-preservation drive. To navigate through difficulties and hardships. To push down instincts of worries and prance forward in life. This is to hold Sharkness."

The tune is featured by the incredible Indrielle, who was recording with us in our studio at the time. The song is a favourite of ours and we hope that you will love it at least as much as you love us.”

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DL Rossi - Tumbling.

“There’s absolutely no reason why we should be doing this right now, other than the fact that this is who I am and this is what I want to do. So let’s just make a record.”

Such was the theme of the recording sessions for soulful roots musician DL Rossi’s upcoming album Lonesome Kind. Known for his brand of heart-wrenching, deeply personal songwriting that’s been compared to the likes of Isbell, Orbison, and Brooks, Rossi left Nashville for his home state of Michigan last year after his uncle was diagnosed with brain cancer, only to find himself commuting back the Music City to record the follow-up to his critically acclaimed album A Sweet Thing.

After a career spent embracing and feeding comparisons to his aforementioned contemporaries, the aim this time around was to break free from those associations and let his own light shine. Raised on Christian music and spending many years of his adult life as a worship leader, he came to love Springsteen, Petty, and Jackson Browne late in the game. And while you can still hear threads of their influence, Rossi’s latest offering shows a maturity and willingness to stand on his own.

Lonesome Kind is a vibey, ‘70s-inspired album laden with Motown guitar riffs and soulful lyrics with a reoccurring theme of independence while mourning the loss of ideals and energy of youth.

It was produced by Tyler Chester (Madison Cunningham), who also lent his skills to tracking bass, keys, and some guitars. Rossi was joined by his brother Nolan (Audrey Assad) and Juan Solorzano (Molly Parden) on guitars, with Ross McReynolds (Jess Nolan, Katie Pruitt) rounding the group out on drums.

DL Rossi · Tumbling

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Knife in the Water - Caitlin Quisenberry - Lavender Diamond - Jack Conman - Secret Sun - Jess Locke

Knife in the Water have just released a new single entitled 'Tears Won't Make the Cotton Grow' and it's an enchanting soulful slice of moody country rock. ===== We featured Caitlin Quisenberry last month with 'Imogene' and she returns now with the energised 'Get Loud With Me' where country pop resonates powerfully. ===== Lavender Diamond make their third appearance on Beehive Candy this year with 'In The Garden' a beautiful song with exquisite vocals and a gorgeous musical arrangement. ===== From Manchester, England Jack Conman shares his brand new single 'Before You Love Me' and it really is something to immerse yourself in, with the singer songwriters vocals exuding intense emotion. ===== Secret Sun have shared a live session video for 'Little Pieces' taken from their new album 'Winter Love' released today, the song gives a good feel for what is a refined collection of indie genre spanning material ===== Jess Locke first appeared here back in July and returns this week with 'Destroy Everything' which is a more powerful indie rocker with deep atmospheric hooks.

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Knife in the Water - Tears Won't Make the Cotton Grow.

Long-time Austin noir-rock band Knife in the Water has a new single out today. It's a take on a song Aaron Blount of the band first heard on a 45 by Marvin Rainwater (released in 1973):

"Marvin Rainwater has long been a hero of ours. He cut 'Boo Hoo' with Vernon and Link Wray and “Hot and Cold” for MGM, which is an instant party if there ever was one. 'Tears' was a serious departure for him. I heard a ghost copy of the Wesco 45 a few years back and we started doing our arrangement at shows, because it felt like it was written for Knife in the Water. It’s the kind of terminal country number that you can’t turn away from, where mother nature rewards hard work and devotion with the punchline we’re all waiting for."

Knife in the Water has been quiet of late, and even quieter before that. We released their fourth album Reproduction in 2017, which was their first since 2003's Cut the Cord. The band began in the summer of 1997 in Austin. From the early stages their dark, quiet, avant-country was welcomed alongside Austin’s louder punk bands, despite the fact that their cinematic sensibilities, desolate sense of space, and woozy tension set them apart.

The Austin scene in the late 90s and early 00s was a hotbed of talent and they established themselves alongside Glorium and American Analog Set, toured with Calexico and ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, and released three records and an EP: Plays One Sound and Others (1998), Red River (1999), Crosspross Bells EP (2001), and Cut the Cord (2003).

There's no dramatic story about the long hiatus. People break up, band members quit or move away, record labels fold, but songwriter Aaron Blount kept writing. In 2015 they began recording again at Jim Eno (of Spoon)'s studio Public Hi-Fi, before building their own home studio. "It slowly dawned on us that if we were gonna keep doing records on our own eccentric schedule, we needed to build our own studio. The first song on Reproduction, "Call It A Shame," is the first song we did at our new place."

Their music is at times woefully bleak and resigned, while shot through with moments of graceful, uplifting release. Pitchfork compared their debut to the Coen Brothers’ film Blood Simple and Rolling Stone writer David Fricke wrote, "This record gets you nowhere fast, which is hardly a problem. You'll be in no hurry to leave."

This is music best heard on long drives or late nights listening alone. Whether it’s the rarity of their live shows, (two in 2019) or the 14-year gap in recorded output, this is a band that rewards patience with songs that hold up over time. Now entering their third decade of making and releasing dark, sparse music that pulses with grace and beauty, the wait is shown to be worth it.

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Caitlin Quisenberry - Get Loud With Me.

Nashville’s newest darling, Caitlin Quisenberry, continues to release riveting songs, followed by inventive music videos. CMT premiered her debut music video for her lead single, “Blue”. This was followed by “Imogene”, which was depicted in a whimsical music video cartoon, created by acclaimed Hollywood cartoonist, Tom Schneiders. Up next, is the music video for her most invigorating new single, “Get Loud With Me”. 

Caitlin gives a stellar performance, as she lures her audience into the enticing world of living life in the fast lane - full of danger, romance and adventure. This is exemplified in the lyrics, “...Get on the ride, ‘cuz it’s passin’ by, let the energy take you up so high, once you feel the rush, you can never, never get enough...”.  “Daniel Catton, a Los Angeles director who wrote the script for this one, is a savant in his field and he is anything but typical. His unique style personifies his ability to shock or do the unexpected. He works mostly in commercial film and also has several award winning independent films under his belt. Daniel brought in the very accomplished producer/cinematographer, Moises Barba, to film, as he directed. 

I became familiar with their work when I was a student at Pepperdine University. I remember their films were very intriguing and avant-garde, so I was elated when they agreed to come to Nashville to shoot my music video!” ~Caitlin Quisenberry 

It was one year ago, last October, when Caitlin’s life took a huge turn. She was planning to attend law school to become an entertainment attorney, but a video of her singing on Instagram caught the attention of a producer in Nashville. She took a chance and flew out to record 4 songs. They soon promoted her as their “Off the Row, Breakout Artist 2020”. Her first single got put on CMT and her second single grabbed spots on two Spotify editorial playlists. 

As she began spending more time in Nashville, she decided that law school would always be there, but the chance to pursue her lifelong dream of being a country artist was too good to pass up; so she moved to Music City and hasn’t looked back. “Pursing music is truly a natural culmination of everything I’ve done – From my years as an actress (most known for my role in the ABC sitcom, “Blackish”), to singing and preforming my entire life. These experiences have given me the training and confidence to make my mark in county music.” ~Caitlin Quisenberry Caitlin’s musical background got serious when she landed the opportunity to record with Multi Grammy-winning prod

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Lavender Diamond - In The Garden.

Lavender Diamond have released a new song "In The Garden," featuring Bright Eyes' Nathaniel Walcott on trumpet. The song is the third track to be taken from Now Is The Time, their first studio album in more than eight years. Now Is The Time will be released on December 4, 2020 via Petaluma Records.
"This song is a battle cry for heaven on earth!" explains Becky Stark. "It’s a song for dancing! In these days of grave transformations it helps me to experience the true heaven of the beauty of earth in the garden and to remember that we can choose to create heaven on earth if we dare."

The band captured the core of the album in just two days, relying on gut instinct to guide their every move, and while the material was written well before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the result is a particularly timely, vital collection, one that couldn’t have come along at a more necessary moment.

"I came to this realization that there’s medicine in the music itself," says Stark. "It can lift people up and heal them and point them toward transformation, and that led me to this tremendously powerful need to start writing and recording again."

Back in the studio for the first time in years, Stark and her Lavender Diamond bandmates Steve Gregoropoulos and Ron Regé, Jr. tapped into their old chemistry almost immediately. Though much had changed for each on a personal level (Stark, for instance, often found herself holding her three-year-old daughter in her arms while recording vocals), the group’s creative bonds proved as durable and potent as ever. Regé, a gifted illustrator and graphic novelist who has contributed artwork throughout the band’s history, laid a subtle yet solid foundation for the record, adding weight and body to Stark’s airy performances, while Gregoropoulos put together the album’s ornate chamber-folk arrangements, coordinating the remote recording of each orchestral part during quarantine and assembling them all into a cohesive whole.

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Jack Conman - Before You Love Me.

The new single Before You Love Me from Manchester based vegan singer-songwriter Jack Conman has been released this week.

Before You Love Me is a highly intimate song with a tender vocal performance that describes that moment when we feel most vulnerable, as we take those first steps in a romantic relationship. In terms of the record's sound, think Thom Yorke meets Jeff Buckley over at Bon Iver’s house. The single precedes the release of Jack's debut album Seventh Sense Libido, out early next year.

With well over a million Spotify streams for previous single Oxytocin, Jack has enjoyed airplay on BBC Radio 1 & 6Music, performed at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend festival, featured in Clash's coveted Next Wave & gained a loyal following after showcasing on youtube channel COLORS. His music is now getting much attention, particularly in America, Germany & the UK with strong & encouraging streaming figures.

Jack Conman · Before You Love Me

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Secret Sun - Little Pieces [Live Session].

The Montreal duo Secret Sun is back with Winter Love, a new record to be released today October 30 via Costume Records. Winter Love is a more luminous, elegant and suave recording than its predecessor Cold Coast (2014), and speaks of love that endures through life’s challenges.

Anne-Marie Campbell, the lyricist behind the songs and the singer, was inspired by the contemplative, cold, white days of winter. “Winter Love is a record about resilience, born in resilience. It’s about the strength we find within ourselves to take care of our loved ones but also the drive to make music within an industry that cares less and less about musicians’ well-being”, she says.

Dropping the needle on a Secret Sun record is the beginning of a captivating journey – like a potent daydream. Between Cold Coast’s release, shows across Canada and the birth of their two children,Simon Landry and Anne-Marie Campbell took the time to reconnect in the studio with their collaborators producer Sébastien Blais-Montpetit and François Lafontaine on the keys to record Winter Love.

“Instead of having folk demos as our starting point for the songwriting process, which was the case for our first album, we wanted to be on track with Secret Sun’s unique sound, which is both modern and outside of current trends. We laid down the basics of this record live at studio Mixart and it became the heart of our songs”, explains Simon Landry, who composed the music and played the guitars on this recording. Guillaume Ethier on the drums and Jean-François Lemieux on the bass bring a groovy and soul touch to Winter Love’s ten songs. “We moved away from bedroom music to create a more ambitious record music-wise, with a strong character”, Simon concludes.

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Jess Locke - Destroy Everything.

Dot Dash Recordings is thrilled to announce that Jess Locke's forthcoming album Don't Ask Yourself Why will be released on Friday 26 March 2021. The Melbourne-based singer-songwriter is known for penning indie guitar-pop tracks that are at times subtle and full of melancholy, at times delivered with an acerbic tongue, but always steeped heavily in narrative.

Locke shared the first taste of the record earlier this year with ‘Fool’ - a simple and raw track, seeking to partner dirty grunge guitars, a fuzzy lead, gritty vocals and a punchy rhythm section. It received airplay across Australia and beyond with radio additions at Double J, FBi Radio, RTR, & SYN, plus spins on triple j, KEXP & more.

Today, to celebrate the album announcement, Jess Locke shares a contrasting track from the album called 'Destroy Everything'. As Locke explains - "The song 'Destroy Everything' is about destruction as both a positive and negative force. Destruction of the old can be necessary in order to make way for new and better things. It can be strategic, revolutionary, inspired by a vision of what is to come next. But destruction can also be reactionary and misdirected, born out of chaos and fear and not really conducive to real change. The song is a kind of meditation on whether destruction is useful or futile or part of a natural and unavoidable cycle."

Don't Ask Yourself Why was recorded by Jess Locke and her bandmates James Morris and Chris Rawsthorne, along with producer Rob Muinos (Saskwatch, Julia Jacklin). On Don’t Ask Yourself Why, Locke invites contemplation. "I mean the phrase ironically, because really, I do want you to ask why" explains Locke. "The whole album is about human behaviour, our egos, and our ability or lack-there-of to reflect on why we act and think the way we do."

"My band and I recorded the album with Rob Muinos in a tiny studio in the back of a guitar shop in Collingwood called Clingan Guitar Tone. It was our first time working with Rob and it was the best. Chris had gotten to know Rob from working in the cafe next door and chatting in passing about music. It turned out we had a lot of common influences and it also turned out that we got along extremely well. We made the last album between a pub and a friend's house and I think Rob’s studio had the perfect cosy homely feeling to follow on from that. Rob was very invested in the process and he challenged a lot of my ideas, leading to something better than I could have imagined by myself. Mostly this was in terms of instrumentation, whether to double vocals or not, but we also worked a lot on the structure of some songs, pulling them to bits and putting them back together again and changing the key sometimes. I admit I had a fair amount of anxiety leading up to recording this record that I think stemmed from knowing I had some great songs and wanting the record to be the best it could be."

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