Showing posts with label Serious Child. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Serious Child. Show all posts

Tuesday, 18 November 2025

Nick & June - PARTICLS - VERA - Serious Child

Photo - Luka Popp
Nick & June - 2017 (feat. The Antlers).

Berlin duo Nick & June (aka Nick Wolf and Suzie-Lou Kraft) have recently announced the release of their new album 'New Year's Face' on 5th December. Produced by Grammy-winning producer Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Sharon Van Etten,) and recorded in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 'New Year's Face', which includes collaborations with Owen Pallett, The National’s Kyle Resnick and Ben Lanz, The Antlers and others, will be released on CD, vinyl and digitally. 'New Year's Face' is the duo's first release since 2023's 'Beach Baby, Baby EP', which enjoyed over 30 million streams, widespread critical praise and led to sold-out shows across Europe.

This week, they share their mesmerising new single '2017', featuring The Antlers’ frontman Peter Silberman. The single arrives with a heartfelt video that compiles clips from the studio and live performance footage filmed with an old camcorder, offering a vintage and charming glimpse behind the scenes. 

Of the introspective, ethereal stunner, Kraft notes: “It’s good to occasionally ask yourself why your mind keeps wandering back to the past. Who’s still living in 2017?” Wolf adds: “Ever since I discovered The Antlers’ album ‘Hospice’ back in 2009, I’ve been a huge fan of Peter and the band. To me, he’s one of the best songwriters of his generation. That we’d end up recording songs together…it still feels kind of crazy". 

============================================================================

PARTICLS - Every Now & Then (EP).

London-based psych-disco sextet PARTICLS release the anticipated debut EP, Every Now & Then. The EP captures the band’s dynamic chemistry, blending 1970s progressive textures with contemporary psych and disco rhythms. Featuring tight full-band instrumentation, folk undertones, bright violin, and evocative vocal melodies, the EP offers a nuanced and refreshingly hard-to-categorize sonic experience.

Exploring themes of presence, authenticity, and vibrancy, it weaves together folk influences, 70s rock, and subtle touches of glitchy, psychedelic effects. Recording sessions began aboard the boat studio Lightship 95, engineered by David Holmes, before tracks were deconstructed and reconstructed at Mashrooms Studios with Ben and Zahara of Strange Pill. The result is a playful, danceable, yet musically sophisticated collection of tracks that celebrates the joy of making music together.

Speaking about the EP, the band explain: “The sound of this EP emerged from a beautiful, frustratingly simple revelation… Disco is where it’s at. The songs reflect who the six of us are alone, the winding paths that led us here, and the pulse of our shared ecstasy, found often, though not always, on the dance floor. It’s the sound of our individual stories meeting, and becoming something collective.”

Formed in a haze at a Kerri Chandler DJ set in the woods where they decided they wanted to make people dance, whilst keeping some of the 1970s progressive vibe from a previous project, PARTICLS have built a reputation for their unique sonic approach - an invitation to experience rhythm, melody, and spontaneity in equal measure. 


============================================================================

VERA - Ketchup.

Creating a buzz across Belfast’s alt scene, VERA are the band everyone’s whispering about. Born when singer-songwriter Sarah Toner’s solo studio sessions with Darragh, Dave, and Matt caught fire, the chemistry quickly became too strong to stay behind the glass. Their sound fuses indie grit, pop hooks, R&B grooves, and sharp alt-rock edges — a mix built for sweat, noise, and emotion. Lyrically raw and unfiltered, they turn heartbreak and sarcasm into cathartic anthems made for the stage.

VERA's latest single Ketchup is a fiery, confessional reflection of breakup chaos. Driven by punchy keys, swaggering bass lines, and VERA’s signature blend of wit, sarcasm and vulnerability, Ketchup captures that moment you finally stop crying over someone and start laughing about it instead. It’s equal parts breakup song and bucket-list manifesto… a reminder that even when life gets messy, you can still groove your way through it.

The Story of the Song - Ketchup isn’t a song about a real experience. The visual image of having Ketchup stains all down my shirt is sort of a character thing… I imagine someone sat eating a burger alone in some sleazy diner despairing about their relationship and what to do to get out of it, but knowing deep down they’re not going anywhere. I think the image of a mess you’ve made yourself stuck in my head. Not to say I haven’t been in that situation myself… but I think we all get Ketchup stains down our shirts now and again. - Sarah Toner


============================================================================

Serious Child - What Lies Beneath (Album).

Serious Child, aka Alan Young, has just released his fourth album ‘What Lies Beneath’. The album is a collection of musical stories about what’s underneath the surface of our everyday lives and the third single to come from it is ‘Veneer’, a story of social camouflage, of a figure who had behaved normally for so long, everyone had forgotten who they were.

Co-written with Neil Connor, ‘Veneer’ is a lush, almost Floydian piece, where a change in tempo, David Grubb’s sliding violin and My Girl The River’s backing vocals take us to a beautiful place of realising who we are. An ode for the outcasts of society, ‘Veneer’ celebrates finding your own individuality and being proud of it with its layers of comforting and sumptuous introspection.

The new single is another look into West Sussex based Alan Young’s intriguing world, which he explores with a poet’s ear for emotion and a comedian’s eye for everyday detail. For the new record, Young has drawn from a wide range of sources of inspiration- from Tony Harrison’s sonnet “Book Ends”, to Rob McFarlane’s brilliant book “Underland” and Georgian traditional lullaby “Iavnana”.

Young’s previous albums have consistently attracted four and five star reviews, and his last full album, 2021’s ‘Talk About The Weather’ (with Andy Ruddy) was shortlisted for Fatea Album of the Year. His most recent project was a charity EP for Save Ukraine, with whom his brother Dave worked as an emergency relief driver. His most ambitious and varied offering to date, the new record, ‘What Lies Beneath’ is the bold sound of an indie-pop artist exploring and confidently fulfilling their potential.

============================================================================

Sunday, 5 October 2025

The Dream Eaters - Jenna DeVries - Pony Gold - Serious Child

The Dream Eaters - Dead Friends.

Brooklyn, NY/Toronto, ON-based indie rock/pop duo The Dream Eaters return with their macabre yet comic new single, “Dead Friends,” a track that transforms loneliness and loss into something strangely celebratory. Blending humour with the surreal, the song tells the story of a trip back to your hometown, only to realize the life you once knew has vanished. Friends are gone, but their ghosts remain – so you invite them over for dinner.

“It’s about taking a trip to your hometown, and the loneliness of realizing that what you knew as your life there has disappeared,” explains Jake Zavracky (vocals/guitar/programming). “So you go back to your apartment and have dinner with their ghosts. It’s humorous and surreal but also about celebrating the moments we shared with the people who have left us.”

What makes “Dead Friends” unique is its unflinching embrace of the macabre through something as ordinary as food. “I don’t know that anyone has ever written a song about making dinner for ghosts,” adds Zavracky. “It’s also about food, and how we use food to show love. Making dinner for people is the best way to show love for your friends.”


============================================================================

Jenna DeVries - Malibu Monroe.

Jenna DeVries releases new cinematic country track, "Malibu Monroe." The single is out now. With her new single, “Malibu Monroe,” Nashville standout Jenna DeVries, already a rising star, blends genres to create a cinematic country-pop storyteller track, all while showcasing the same powerful, unique vocals that have made her one of the most compelling new voices in Nashville.

“One day, I was looking through Pinterest and I stumbled across this photo of Marilyn Monroe before she was famous. She was up on the cliffs of Malibu… I remember looking at the photo and thinking, surely the person who took this photo was in love with her… and maybe she was in love with them. Then I wrote their story… It’s called Malibu Monroe. I think we all deserve the kind of love that makes us feel truly seen - that is what this song is about.”

Produced by powerhouse Don Miggs, the track layers glossy, atmospheric production with DeVries’ unmistakable vocal strength. From the opening escape - “Baby let's get out of town / we can drive with all the windows down” - to the soaring chorus - “Cause you make me feel / like Malibu Monroe / take me to the highest spot on the coast” - DeVries captures the romance of Old Hollywood through a modern lens.

============================================================================

Photo - Victoria Black
Pony Gold - High Road Reverie (Album).

While growing up in Smithers, British Columbia, Theresa Anne Bromley developed a strong connection to the Telkwa High Road, a place where she spent countless hours dreaming of how she would create a life outside of her small community, and coming up with ideas for the songs that would eventually make that happen.

In 2023, she released her first music as Pony Gold, the EP Take Me Somewhere, which propelled her onto the national stage with its blend of folk, soul, bluegrass and alt-country. Pony Gold is now set to return with High Road Reverie, an 11-song collection that pays tribute to those formative years on the Telkwa High Road, and all the heartbreak and hope it now symbolizes for Bromley.

Produced by Leeroy Stagger and featuring backing by members of City & Colour, fiddler Kendel Carson, and Bromley’s husband Matt on slide guitar, High Road Reverie formally establishes Pony Gold as an important new voice on the Canadian roots music scene, following in the footsteps of Kathleen Edwards, Neko Case and Feist.

“This record reflects both continuity and growth—tying together past and present, and setting the stage for what’s next,” Bromley says. “The album tells my story through raw, honest songwriting, touching on addiction, grief, an adverse small town upbringing, a father imprisoned, the unconditional love of a horse, and the resilience that comes with recovery.”

============================================================================

Serious Child - Dusk on the 33.

Serious Child is back with a hypnotic orchestral-pop single which explores the connections between us all- ‘Dusk on the 33’, out this weekend.

The song tells the story of an old woman riding the bus all day to keep warm, and no-one noticing her. Inspired by a Georgian lullaby, ‘Iavnana (Violet Nana)’, ‘Dusk on the 33’ has a slightly otherworldly off-kilter piano-led psychedelic lilt to it, with the poignancy of the old woman’s story nestled within.

The accompanying video for the track was created via an intergenerational dance project between Three Score Dance Company and MA students from the University of Chichester and perhaps shows that beneath everything there’s an underlying connection between us all in our daily lives. Contemporary dance routines from both and younger dancers meet when Young drives them all on their daily bus commutes as the track’s orchestral pop melancholy grows more and more hypnotic.


============================================================================

Monday, 8 September 2025

Gal Musette - Serious Child - Tamar Berk - The Grahams - Rob Smith (a.k.a. RSD) & Ammoye

Gal Musette -Broken Clock. 

Gal Musette is a singer-songwriter from Los Angeles whose upcoming third album, Our Day in the Sun, marks a quiet rebellion and a coming-into-self. Known for her delicate, introspective sound, Gal steps into new power with this record, an intimate ode to loss, endings, and the unraveling of old ideals. Vulnerability becomes a strength here, as she sheds the need to please and embraces a raw, unfiltered voice. The album also features a collaboration with Aaron Marsh (of Copeland), who composed the lush string and woodwind arrangement for one of its most poignant tracks.

Her latest single "Broken Clock" is a stunning folk embrace featuring blissful harmonies and delicate acoustic rhythms. She shares, "‘Even a broken clock is right twice a day’ is an old saying that caught my attention when an old boyfriend called me ‘blind.’ I thought then—even with my blind spots, I knew my gut was right in leaving that relationship behind."

In recent years, she’s toured and recorded with artists like Vacations, Jazzie Young, and Georgia Gets By (of Broods), released music with her trio Tin Angel, and opened for Rufus Wainwright and Gaby Moreno.


============================================================================

Serious Child - First Tattoo.

Serious Child, aka Alan Young, is pleased to announce the release of his fourth album ‘What Lies Beneath’ for 7th November 2025. Hailing from an old wood in West Sussex (England), Young draws from a wide range of influences to explore the world around us with a poet’s ear for emotion and a comedian’s eye for everyday detail.

For the new record, Young has drawn from a wide range of sources of inspiration- from Tony Harrison’s sonnet “Book Ends”, to Rob McFarlane’s brilliant book “Underland” and Georgian traditional lullaby “Iavnana”. The album sees him joined by classical composer and violinist, David Grubb, bass clarinettist, Anna Perry, vocalist and touring partner My Girl The River, and long-time collaborator and producer Chris Pepper.

‘What Lies Beneath’ is a collection of musical stories about what’s underneath the surface of our everyday lives, from a woman quietly riding the bus all day to keep warm, to the prickle of fear exploring an ancient burial chamber and to the joy of a midlife tattoo on the album’s first single ‘First Tattoo’.

In finest pop tradition, ‘First Tattoo’ is literally a three-chord song, centred around a nursery rhyme riff, but played on a kalimba (thumb piano), with loads of lovely texture and interplay from Annie Perry on bass clarinet and David Grubb on violin. “I wanted to write something simple and joyful, without a care in the world”, explains Young. “On vocals, it was a family affair, with daughter Rosa providing backing a-has in addition to My Girl The River, and partner Kate donating her laugh at the whole silliness of it all. And yes, I am getting a tattoo”, he further adds.


============================================================================

Tamar Berk - ocd (Album).

Tamar Berk released her fifth album ocd across music platforms last Friday, unveiling her most personal and sonically ambitious work yet. The record is a fuzzed-out, reverb-soaked exploration of looping thoughts, emotional spirals, and the strange beauty of overthinking.

Following wide indie acclaim for the first single “stay close by,” Tamar turns the spotlight to the album’s title track and focus single, "ocd", whose music video arrives alongside the full release. A groovy and dizzying layering of Wurlitzer, trumpet, and lyrical repetition, the song is both beautiful and claustrophobic. Teasing synths drift like sirens over an ocd-like refrain: “over and over and over.”

“It’s about the chaos I live with internally, the constant loop of anxiety, memory, control, regrets, and perfectionism,” Tamar says. “But it’s also about trying to find the humor and beauty in it, too.”

Across ocd, Tamar blends fuzzed-out guitars, dreamlike synths, warm piano, and intimate vocals into songs that examine identity, anxiety, memory, and the patterns we cannot escape. The album’s 12 tracks move between loud catharsis and quiet confession, capturing the absurd, messy, and sometimes hopeful loops of the mind. Each song connects like a fragment of a larger story, both personal and cinematic. With distorted guitars, dreamy piano lines, and diary-level confession, ocd is as melodic as it is mentally spiraled. It is Tamar’s most vulnerable and self-aware work, while also being her catchiest.


============================================================================

Photo - Julian Gross
The Grahams - The One Who Remembers.

Acclaimed Americana-pop duo The Grahams have released their new single “The One Who Remembers.” The deeply personal piano ballad from married couple Alyssa and Doug Graham is a heartbreaking tale about a loved one struggling with Alzheimer’s and the impact it has on an entire family. “The One Who Remembers” is the latest offering from the group’s fourth studio album, The Bridge, out October 10th via 3Sirens, following the releases of their singles “Only New York” and “Found It In Us.”

“This song is the most personal song we’ve ever written,” shares Alyssa. “It is an authentic, unfathomable, and devastating look into a life story and struggle. Ultimately, I think it is a song about acceptance and remembrance.” - “‘The One Who Remembers’ is a small glimpse into a long and arduous battle,” adds Doug. “The unimaginable reality of memory loss and the realization that love is never forgotten.”

The Bridge marks the first time The Grahams are giving listeners an honest glimpse into their personal lives within their music. The 11-track collection, named after the George Washington Bridge, which transported the New Jersey natives to New York City during their formative years, is inspired by their everyday lives. For the album, The Grahams found themselves embracing the collaborative Nashville co-write by collaborating with GRAMMY-nominated producer Dex Green, singer-songwriter Kate York, and GRAMMY-nominated songwriter Aaron Lee Tasjan. Alyssa (vocals) and Doug (guitars/vocals) credit these three creative ambassadors with helping them write about their lives honestly and vulnerably, diving deep into their childhood love affair that has lasted over 37 years.

============================================================================

Rob Smith (a.k.a. RSD) & Ammoye - Walking In The Rain.

Rob Smith is a true producer legend, he produced the first Massive Attack single Any Love in 1988 together with Ray Mighty. They had the project “Smith & Mighty” going on which was huge and successful on K7! Records. 

They formed and created the melting pot of Bristol Sound with trip hop, breakbeat, dub, jungle, drum and bass, soul and jazz unfluenced vibes. ROB SMITH and Smith & Mighty remixed Neneh Cherry, M People, Beats International, Fine Young Cannibals and many more.

Ammoye – is a Jamaican-Canadian reggae musician, most noted as a seven-time Juno Award nominee for Reggae Recording of the year - on lovely vocals appearance and Rob Smith on production, they both bring us back to the time as Flash & The Pan and later on Grace Jones were doing 'Walking In The Rain' as their big and huge hits in the 80ties.

============================================================================

Celestial Bums - The Brook & The Bluff - KiKi Holli & The Remedy - Cut Flowers - The Legal Matters

Celestial Bums - The Letters. Shoegaze warmth and dream pop elegance converge in Celestial Bums’ “The Letters” Barcelona’s Celestial Bums ...