Stockholm four-piece Melby have constantly been growing since their debut with catchy single 'Human' in 2016. In 2019, the band released their acclaimed debut record 'None of this makes me worry' which was followed by tour dates all over Europe. Cancelled tours in 2020 lead to the band working on new material in a new way. 'Common Sense' was released in December and 'Old Life' now follows alongside an animated music video made by Isabelle Friberg.
On the melancholic folk inspired 'Old Life', Melby continues to cement their role as one of the most interesting Scandinavian acts around, a band so home and accomplished within their sound that they're now ready to continue to experiment with it without losing their characteristic. The new material was mainly written and straight-away recorded in the studio in close collaboration with producer Alexander Eldefors, this is a completely new way for a band that previously in many cases have toured material for years before recording them.
The band often gets compared to fellow Swedes Dungen and Amason but Melby’s dynamic sound, with influences from folk, psych, indie and pop, stand out. The quartet's light, semi-psychedelic folk pop is led by Matilda Wiezell’s enchanting voice which fits perfectly with Melby’s unique musical landscape - a sound that's been called "otherworldly, and wholly brilliant" by The Line of Best Fit.
The band tells us about Old Life: "Old Life consists of an upbeat, sort of entangled, rhythmic foundation, playing against gloomy and almost dreamlike melodies on top. It sounds a bit like flying, looking down at the landscapes and people passing by beneath you. You're flying fast, but there's also this peacefulness to it. That feeling ties into the lyrical theme, that revolves around moving to another country, and leaving your old life behind."
The band consists of Wiezell, Are Engen Steinsholm (back-up vocals, guitar), David Jehrlander (bass) and Teo Jernkvist (drums) and formed while living together in a Stockholm shared housing.
Having garnered press support from the likes of BBC Radio 1’s Huw Stephens, the Bristolian outfit Goan Dogs gear up to release ‘Drinking On A School Night’, a promising guitar pop-anthem that lands as a new taster of their highly anticipated debut full-length ‘Call Your Mum’.
Consisting of 12 tracks, new album ‘Call Your Mum’ which lands on February 5th, 2021, sees the five-piece utilise dark elements of experimental electronica with warped guitar chords to contort and sculpt an unconventional structure into an exquisite piece of indie-pop with universal accessibility.
Discussing the inspiration for the album, the band say “It’s top advice for anyone in the privileged position of having a mum they can talk to. The album is filled with lost people, unfulfilled people, confused people, heartsick people and anxious people.”
This is evident on new their newest taster ‘Drinking On A School Night’. Connecting jangly guitar pop with skewed experimental synths, the songs raw energy is kept in check by Goan Dogs innate sense for structure, along with frontman Luke’s hazy vocals.
The band say of their new single: "Drinking on a school night is our latest piece of existential dread put to music. It’s a hypothetical glimpse into the future, where nothing much has changed apart from the fact that we’re older. Except it's irresistibly catchy and the vibe is straight fire. You’re not going to know whether to drown your sorrows or start dancing. We suggest you do both."
Following his self-titled debut full length last year, Venus Furs has shared a new video for track “New Inspiration”. The moody, late-night song has an encompassing psych rock sound with lyrics inspired by classic literature.
Venus Furs is the moniker of Montreal’s Paul Kasner, a multi-instrumentalist, writer, producer and self-described “perfectionist”. In the preceding years the act has taken many forms, supporting the likes of The Horrors and The Twilight Sad as he worked on refining and determining exactly what Venus Furs was meant to be. After years of hard work and multiple hurdles, Kasner is on the verge of releasing Venus Furs, a rigorously crafted set of songs that voyage heedlessly through sonic and mental terrain in a way that could only be the product of a single idiosyncratic mind.
This speaks to his remarkable determination to create the album he long envisioned, and has now realised with the dazzling Venus Furs. Once you press play on the self-titled record you’re immediately welcomed into a world of sound that sits at the nexus of psych rock and garage rock, shot through with grand melodic hooks that echo the British alternative scene that he’s always greatly admired, all produced with a finely-tuned ear and precise hand.
London duo Sunglasses For Jaws have announced details of new album Everybody's Made Of Bones with the release of new single "Walk Me Home". Creating widescreen, psychedelic instrumental music as a production duo since 2017, David Bardon and Oscar Robertson are branching out with their fourth full-length album, Everybody's Made Of Bones - out June 3rd via Pony Recordings.
Produced by Charlotte Kemp Muhl at (her partner) Sean Ono Lennon's studio in upstate New York, and mixed by Elliot Heinrich (Temples, Sorry, Parquet Courts) duo also recruited vocalist and actor Olivier Huband to join the band for the new album - taking on a new character of his own for the project - Frank.
"Frank is a deluded paranoid schizophrenic, essentially,” the band explain. “He believes that he's in a film, but he's not, just like everyone thinks that they're in a film in their own head. Really though, it's a man having a nervous breakdown. It's an exploration of method acting and having an existential crisis in this role you're playing. It's a bit meta and in the rabbit hole!"
As a trio, the band’s music took on a largely new shape, weaving Huband's hushed singing and spoken word narratives through their already vivid, colourful musical landscapes. "Sunglasses For Jaws is our vessel to experiment and make any kind of music we want to," the duo – who also produce for the likes of Miles Kane – explain. “This time we've given it a lot more intention and thought, and we wanted to create an entire little world.” The story and struggles of Huband's character 'Frank' are manifested magnificently across the sprawling, kaleidoscopic album while on opener and new single "Walk Me Home" the lyrics specifically zoom in on temptation and its potential consequences.
Speaking on the track, the band said: "The concept behind the song is that of temptation. Of making a decision that could have disastrous consequences. But, just as Eve plucked the Apple from the Tree, we want to take our own risks and taste our own apples. And those risks seem even more exciting when they’re forbidden. Who knows what could happen. What could change. How you could feel. You’ll never know unless you try it. So I’d just say this: don’t go home with strangers... unless you want to."
Diane Arkenstone, for over 20 years a pioneering musical force in a variety of genres, has kicked off a busy 2021 with the release of a new single and E.P both titled Beyond the Golden Sea via her label Neo Pacifica Recordings.
Best known for her soulfully meditative and heartfelt instrumental recordings, the 6-song EP contains new vocal work that evocatively merges her many musical muses—from guitar-based songs to sensual, beat-driven work. “Beyond the Sea” in particular takes the listener on an exotic trip to Zanzibar—one that she had planned and had to miss due one of her many heart surgeries. The effortless exoticism of “Beyond the Golden Sea,” which also features contributions from David Arkenstone, is truly transportive.
Says Arkenstone of the single: ‘While recovering from heart surgery, some of my family travelled overseas and I was unable to go along with them. They sent beautiful photos of Zanzibar, so I wrote a song imagining all the magic and wonder they experienced, and ‘Beyond the Golden Sea’ was born. The song took me so far away, that it felt like I was right there in Zanzibar. And it still does.”
Nick Babcock and Laila Kharouba make up your new favourite pop duo, Your Paris. Praised for their poignant lyrics and on stage chemistry, they’ve been told that even while singing about heartbreak, they make others want to fall in love.
Their pop tunes are fresh yet familiar upon first listen, and have been compared to Julia Michaels and Scott Helman. Since their commencement at the start of 2020, the duo has made a splash in the Ontario music scene.
They’ve opened for Toronto indie-rock band Birds of Bellwoods, have been featured by many media outlets including Global News and CTV’s Your Morning, and have organically grown their Spotify audience to over 16,000 monthly listeners.
Their last single “Rooms” reached new listeners after being placed on three Spotify editorial playlists:“New Music Friday Canada”, “It’s a Bop”, and “Fresh Finds: Pop”. They are determined to stay in the honeymoon phase of their career: in love with, and inspired by their music.
Samana return with the lo-fi psychedelic pop of new single ‘All One Breath’. Named by Elbow frontman Guy Garvey as his ‘Artist Of The Year’ on his BBC 6Music show, the sumptuous combination of Rebecca Rose Harris’s dulcet vocals and Franklin Mockett’s gently haunting piano can be streamed below -
Self-produced, self-recorded and self-mixed whilst holed-up in a remote part of France, ‘All One Breath’ is "a rumination of our interrelations with nature, and the impressions we carve on the world which surrounds us. Wisdom has been exchanged for naivety, which took the guise of intelligence, but the solution is buried within the ancestral part of each and every one of us".
Following the release of the 'The Spirit Moving’ EP in 2020, ‘All In One Breath’ will join recent single ‘Live For The Road’ on the forthcoming 'Melancholy Heat EP' set for release on 17th February.
Five Videos and A Yellow Coat by Matt Costa and Minh Pham. This all started because I asked Minh (visual artist Minh Pham) if she had a coat I could borrow. Turned out to be the cover of my record. Then, when the world shut down, I started working on something else.
I turned my apartment into a sound stage, bought green screens to stage stop frame photography, and made music videos for a number of the songs on my new record with Minh. A return to my adolescence of sorts, the process was evocative of making and editing skate videos myself on VHS, syncing the right trick to the sound that would elevate it to the next level.
Music has always been visual to me. Minh was able to take the record and translate the score to images - making miniature models, domestic objects, otherworldly dancers - commingling them all to find new meaning. It all came to life before our eyes, it was an uninhibited discovery.
The "Avenal" video was molded out of restrictions in a way that built the foundation for the rest of the videos. It was our first attempt at collaborating together. We both found common ground with using analog and digital techniques in our own practices so it made sense to continue and experiment with both mediums. We tried to embrace the digital era by using the computer to enhance a collage aesthetic, but not be reliant on it. An altered reality in two dimensional form that breathes life into inanimate - sometimes overlooked, commonplace - objects and in doing so brings dreams to life. Yellow Coat explores how when faced with challenges the formerly unnoticed becomes symbolic, evoking joy and wonder.
The five videos together address the concept of being sold an idea of what love is. In these videos we tried to tap into a Rorschach of ideas to address that association with two dimensional objects then broken up and displaced. Within that we tried to evoke the sense of joy and wonder; love has limitless possibilities and means something completely different to everyone. Love can conjure a sense of loss and simultaneously a sense of hope. We tried to capture pure emotion by displacing these things like fragments of a feeling. And the memories of love like a collage arranged into shapes or grids as one tries to make sense of it all. - Matt Costa
Looking to lift your spirits naturally? Experience the music of Accolades, a young 8-piece band from Toronto with an eclectic mix of progressive rock, funk, R + B, and Jazz with lots of wind power. Their sound is best served live so you can be fully immersed in their energetic vibe.
Accolades have been making a name for themselves since their recent tour through Ontario and Eastern Canada, playing festivals and engaging their audience in ways no other band can. It’s as if you are part of the show, not just a spectator. There are no walls with this band... everyone’s together, everyone's performing!
Since being signed to the independent label, Akashic Rekords in early 2018 - operated by multi-award winning producer Igor Vrabac- Accolades have been hard at work in the studio on their second EP slated for Early 2021, a follow-up to their debut self-titled and self-released EP in 2016.
two singles have been released to date featuring notable talent including Alexis Baro, and Yannick Allwood. Their music is the perfect elixir to a bad day and the feel-good vibes will last long after their last song has ended.
Anna Leone has released a new single ‘Once’, produced by Paul Butler (Michael Kiwanuka, Hurray For The Riff Raff) and released via AllPoints/Half Awake. Released alongside a stunning video shot on The Azores, the new single follows 2020’s ‘Wondering’ - also produced by Butler - which arrived close on the tail of Stockholm native Anna’s win at the 2020 Music Moves Talent Awards (alongside Flohio, girl in red and Pongo). Leone emerged in 2018 with her widely applauded debut EP ‘Wandered Away’, drawing fans at 6Music including Lauren Laverne & Guy Garvey, alongside Ones To Watch tips from Spotify and Youtube, and over 18 million streams online. ‘Once’ is streaming across all platforms , alongside the new video, from here.
Rueful but unmistakably hopeful, ‘Once’ considers naivety, regret and efforts to break certain patterns of behaviour with Leone’s disarming candor and the bell-like clarity of her voice. The track’s quietly insistent urging to move past impulses to close off from the world is brought to life in Savannah Setten’s startlingly surreal video, created with Anna on The Azores.
With the changeable weather systems of the Portuguese archipelago mirroring the tender, dream-like sequence, Anna notes; The narrative loop comes from the idea of being stuck in your ways, going through the same patterns, but then choosing to break out of that and do things differently. Towards the end I reconcile with the past, symbolised by the little girl. I choose to embrace what once was in order to move forward. It was incredible getting to shoot the video in that beautiful environment. The weather was really unpredictable - we went through almost all four seasons in one day.
Now 26 - still shy, but determined to connect, Anna grew up the quietest of five sisters in a suburb of Stockholm. An introverted video game and sci-fi obsessive, Anna fast developed her own rich inner life, absorbed in the storytelling DC and Marvel. It’s an escape she seeks comfort from now; I love losing myself in other universes, they give me a sense of belonging. Similarly, Leone bought a guitar with no other intention beyond privately perfecting treasured releases by the likes of Bon Iver, Lana Del Rey and Laura Marling.
Blue Water Highway shared their new single "Sign Language,” from their upcoming album Paper Airplanes, due March 12. The video is currently streaming via Sounds Like Nashville who writes, “the dreamy track feels like a mix of ’80s electro-pop and rootsy Americana, with synthesized keyboards and percussion joining an old-school male/female harmony.”
Singer and guitarist Zack Kibodeaux describes the themes behind “Sign Language,” writing “It’s about how two people can get into silly fights because they’re not seeing eye to eye, so they develop their own language to communicate. I think that’s an important message, how we can bond together when the world is falling apart.”
Paper Airplanes has received early acclaim from outlets such as American Songwriter, Parade, and American Blues Scene.
‘The sonic theme of the album was what we kept calling “building a space ship in a barn,” writes singer and guitarist Zack Kibodeaux. “It was essentially mixing organic sounds of the country with sounds of the urbanized, modern world. We achieved that with acoustic instruments and natural vocal harmonies, mixed with analog synthesizers and electric guitars. Lyrically, we were going for something similar, holding fast to elemental and timeless values of love and communication, while the world outside is rapidly changing and sometimes feeling more isolating and disconnected.’
Blue Water Highway was started by Zack Kibodeaux (lead vocals/guitar) and Greg Essington (vocals/guitar) who have been best friends since high school. Zack then turned to Catherine Clarke (vocals/keyboard), to complete the three-part harmonies that the band would soon be known for, and they were joined by Kyle Smith (bass). They take their name from the roadway that links their hometown of Lake Jackson, Texas to Galveston. They have released two full length studio albums to date in 2015’s Things We Carry and 2018’s Heartbreak City which includes their hit “Evangeline”.
Everything by Electricity is a musical project led by Siberian-born songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Yulia Bizyukova. Yulia grew up in the unremarkable city of Barnaul located in the south of Western Siberia where it snows for a third of the year and freezing cold winters last for up to five months. She began making music at age 10, when she started learning guitar and almost immediately started writing songs and formed a school band. On moving to London, Yulia quietly crafted a collection of demo material in her bedroom studio and expanded the live line-up with the addition of James (bass guitar) and Manoela (drums).
Everything by Electricity’s sound is littered with the strains of alienation and longing for escape one would expect from childhoods spent gazing across cold barren landscapes deep behind the iron curtain. The trio aptly derive their moniker from an extract of Jules Verne’s 2000 Leagues Under The Sea – “There is a powerful agent, obedient, rapid, easy, which conforms to every use, and reigns supreme on board my ship. Everything is done by means of it. It lights it, warms it, and is the soul of my mechanical vessel. This agent is electricity. Everything by Electricity”.
Here’s what Yulia had to say about the track: “While this song is fairly upbeat and even uplifting, lyrically, it’s a melancholic anthem of letting go, shutting down the memories and moving on. I wrote this song a few years ago when I locked myself for a week in my room working on the first batch of EbE demos without getting much sleep, it was exciting yet absolutely exhausting too and one early morning when I’ve finished a couple of first tracks, I went to bed thinking that I’m finally getting out of my room as soon as I wake up and as I’ve been falling asleep, this whole new song just came into my head out of nowhere and started with the line: “hey, ride away into the wild, you colored my days with your smile” and so on, with the finished melody, guitar riffs, everything. So I got up, grabbed my guitar and recorded it in “voice memos” on my phone so I could remember it the next day, that’s how I wrote “Violet Haze”. Couldn’t get out of that room for another week sadly but demoed “Violet Haze” instead”
Memphis-based artist John Paul Keith will release his new record 'The Rhythm of the City' on February 19th via Wild Honey Records.
Following album opener 'How Can You Walk Away', he has now shared new single 'I Don't Wanna Know'. Of the new track, he says: "We had already recorded the ten songs I'd planned for the record, but there was one song I just wasn't happy with, so I decided to shelve it. That meant I needed one more song. I told the band to give me a couple of days and I went home and wrote "I Don't Wanna Know". I knew right away the album was going to be better for it. And I was happy the other song didn't work out, because I probably would never have written this one. We went back in and recorded it, and Tirienii and Tikyra Jackson wrote the perfect background vocal arrangement for it. It just all came together."
Keith’s fifth solo album – and his first self-produced effort – 'The Rhythm of the City' finds him expanding his approach on a horn-heavy 10-song collection that’s in thrall to the classic sounds of Bluff City soul and rock and roll.
“I was at my home in Memphis one evening and heard a car pass by blasting Al Green's ‘Love and Happiness,’ which was recorded just a couple miles away,” says singer-songwriter John Paul Keith. “I was struck by how Howard Grimes' drumming just seems to embody something about the feel and the pace of life for me here. I thought to myself, ‘Howard Grimes is the rhythm of the city.’ My next thought was, ‘That sounds like a title track.’”
Conjuring up his own unique musical mélange –a sweet spot where the sound of Sun blues, Stax soul, and Hi R&B all meet – it’s a record steeped in the geography and culture of Memphis, which Keith has called home for the last 15 years. “The vibe came about organically from playing Beale Street and Graceland and working with horn sections more frequently the last few years,” says Keith.
The Rhythm of the City was recorded to tape at Electraphonic Studios, and engineered by Keith’s frequent collaborator, Scott Bomar (bandleader of the Bo-Keys, Don Bryant producer, and film composer for Dolemite Is My Name).
Nashville-based singer/songwriter Elise Davis has announced her third studio album Anxious. Happy. Chill. will be released on April 16 via Tone Tree. Davis released “Yellow Bed,” following the release of three singles in 2020 (“Ladybug,” “The Grid,” and “Flame Color”) that will appear on the forthcoming album.
"I lived alone for a very long time. My bed was temporary for others and I very much liked having my own space. That was until I met my now-husband Jason,” explains Davis. “After we moved in together there were these moments of absolute bliss I would feel getting into our bed together at night, simply experiencing my bed also being someone else's bed. It is a place we meet and fall into our own little world every night. The great amount of joy that has given me was the inspiration for this song."
Anxious. Happy. Chill. was recorded just days after wrapping her honeymoon in Arizona, where she finished writing the album in the Sonoran Desert outside Tucson. Davis recorded the album with producer Teddy Morgan (Carl Broemel) at his studio in Nashville, TN. With the Covid-19 pandemic already in full swing, Davis and Morgan worked together for a month while maintaining their physical distance, communicating through the glass windows of the studio's isolation booths and playing the majority of the instruments themselves. Drummer Fred Eltringham (Sheryl Crow, The Wallflowers) joined them for a single day to lend the album its unique, percussive pulse.
The album was written during the rush of a new relationship and recorded weeks after Davis’ wedding. It's the happiest record she's ever made, stocked with 10 songs that serve as foils to the independent, no-boys-allowed anthems that filled her critically-acclaimed 2018 sophomore album, Cactus. Davis remains every bit as resilient and empowered as Cactus proved her to be, but she has also traded her old muses — heartache, sadness, and a lone-wolf mentality — for something bolder and brighter.
