Katherine Fischer - Marlody - Caitlin Rose - Eliza McLamb - Mary Middlefield

Katherine Fischer - To This Day.

Like a re-discovered diary entry on your worst day, Katherine Fischer wants you to feel understood. With over 250 songs in her arsenal and counting, she hopes to be your tour guide through the darkest corners to the brightest balcony of her human experience.

Hailing from London Ontario, Katherine Fischer writes songs for souls with big feelings. In August 2016 Katherine released her debut EP "Here I Am" followed by her sophomore release "Wildflower Heart" in 2019.  Her EP's share folky heart led narratives that rival your favourite coming of age novel. Katherine's song "I Choose You" was included on Amazon's "Best of 2020: Folk" playlist alongside Kathleen Edwards and John Prine. In 2021 her single "Memories" was released and placed on Spotify's "New Music Friday" and most recently her song "The Current" was added to Spotify's "Folk and Friends" playlist.

Funded by the Ontario Arts Council, London Arts Council, SOCAN Foundation and SHINE Foundation, Katherine's debut full length  album "Great Loves" was released November 2022, and has garnered over 60,000 streams and 8,000+ fans worldwide. "Great Loves" blends Americana, indie pop, cinematic strings and harmonies that wrap around you to create a breathtaking folk album. Great Loves is the story of all incapsulating love, of the land, of people, of yourself.

Katherine Fischer · To This Day

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Marlody - Summer.

Marlody’s first album I’m Not Sure At All will be released by Skep Wax in January 2023, and this single is the first taste of what’s to come. The beauty of the music – the rolling waves of keyboard, the apparently simple vocal melody – hit you first.  But Summer is like a trap: it’s drawing you into a darker place.

Sung from the perspective of a young girl whose mother has died, Summer gives a disturbing, eerie picture of an adult world that’s losing its moorings.  The innocence of the child and the sweetness of the music pull us safely through, saving us from the worst of it, but Summer is a perfect example of Marlody’s ability to weave songs so disarming that, for a few minutes, we feel as innocent as the child in the song.  For a while, we don’t notice that summer is over. We don’t notice how dark it’s getting.

There are many echoes here: the infectiousness and daring of some of the vocal melodies might remind you of Kate Bush, the intimacy might remind you of Cate Le Bon, the stabs of anger and pain might remind you of Liz Phair. The harmonies are from another place again – you could imagine hearing them in an Unthanks recording.

 

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Caitlin Rose - Getting It Right (Featuring Courtney Marie Andrews).

Celebrated Nashville singer/songwriter Caitlin Rose released a new single called "Getting It Right" off her forthcoming album CAZIMI (out November 18th via Missing Piece Records). Co-written with Courtney Marie Andrews, who also sings harmonies on the track, "Getting It Right" finds a resolute Rose trying her wearied best at self-improvement.

“Several years ago, I fell in love with Courtney’s first album,” stated Rose. “I had been doing co-writes for a while, but realized I needed to start focusing in on the writers and artists I really wanted to collaborate with. I wasn’t really being set up on things that were fulfilling that desire so I snuck into her DM’s and proposed a write whenever she was in town. Luckily she was already in town and we spent an extremely hot afternoon on the patio talking astrology and music and walking away with what I always thought of as a bit of a banger.”

She continued, “It feels like an obvious anthem for the album with all the time that’s gone by and the hole I was in for a few years. All the disappointment of feeling like I couldn’t do a damn thing right. I’m not even sure how much of that discussion was had, but it was really refreshing to talk and create something with someone on the brink of their own amazing journey. A little of my own cynicism dissolved that day, and even though it would take a few more years before I could actually embark on my own re-entry into the field, it’s definitely a song that helped push me in the right direction

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Eliza McLamb - Pulp.

Singer-songwriter Eliza McLamb is coming of age right in front of us. When the beginning of the pandemic interrupted McLamb’s studies at George Washington University, she eschewed the pre-law path she’d planned for herself and headed west. She started sharing original songs on TikTok while working on farms in North Carolina and Kansas, and was shocked to see her videos find a devoted audience. “I'd been writing songs since I was six years old. It just never really occurred to me that there would be anyone interested,” says McLamb.

Soon, her intimate songs about relationships, body image, and the complexities of life as a young woman started racking up millions of views apiece. Her earliest tracks were deeply personal, made from nothing but her voice and a guitar and recorded in the laundry shed where she lived at the time. Nevertheless, they contained something that resonated — an intimacy borne from her ability to speak to the universal while also speaking only for herself.

Last month McLamb announced her signing to Royal Mountain Records (Wild Pink, Pillow Queens, Girlpuppy), with a track called "Doing Fine", that received a glowing write up from FADER, who said that McLamb "pins down big feelings with sharp observations" adding that her writing is "sharp and heavy at the same time, packing a heftier kick than her singer-songwriter peers." Today, McLamb is back to announce her debut EP Salt Circle, produced by Sarah Tudzin (aka Illuminati Hotties), and sharing a new track entitled “Pulp."

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Mary Middlefield - Band Aid.

Mary Middlefield is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and classically-trained violinist from Switzerland. Her debut single “Band Aid” features Middlefield’s melody, guitar, and violin writing skills all of which is on full display.

“I really wanted to write a song in which the lyrics could really transmit plenty of different scenes and images,” Explains Mary Middlefield. “I ended up creating a story in which two characters fall out of love before their love story actually begins. I loved the idea of using specific vocabulary that would make the story take place in a theater, where a show should have taken place but never did. I chose to lead with ‘Band Aid’ as a single because I think it’s very relatable. Relationships often break before they even begin and someone always gets hurt, especially if they put themselves out there from the start. The production incorporates everything I love: violins and cellos, folky guitars and smooth drums…”

“The video for ‘Band Aid’ is very similar to the song,” Middlefield continues. “I really wanted it to be set in a theatre where I’m the one putting on a show for a man, desperately trying to give him any character he could potentially want. But it ends up being all in vain as he gets bored and falls asleep during this pathetic show that he doesn’t enjoy. I’m a very openly vulnerable person and give people around me often big pieces of me from the very start. I feel that this video is very true to me and sincere.”

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Moriah Bailey - Paige Bea - SOMOH

Moriah Bailey - The Ocean Life.

Oklahoma songwriter & harpist Moriah Bailey releases “The Ocean Life” from her upcoming album i tried words out December 2nd via Keeled Scales. Inspired by her earliest memories of music, the track is a multifaceted and alludes to notions of freedom, environmental degradation, capitalist consumption, and longing for a different kind of life.

The music video was directed & edited by Lauren Reese, with assistance from Holly Pierce & Elmer Fajardo. “The Ocean Life” music video couples Bailey’s soft but steady harp with snapshots of the natural landscapes in Oklahoma – revealing that change is omni-present.

What Bailey has to say about "The Ocean Life" & music video: "The Ocean Life" is about a lot of things and can be interpreted in different ways. In its broadest sense, for me, the song is longing and hoping for a different kind of life, and its also lamenting losses resulting from the ways that we relate to one another, places, and other beings.

My friend Lauren Reese envisioned and created the video for "the ocean life." When we initially talked about collaborating on this, I let her listen to the whole album and choose a song that she was excited about. The video was filmed at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. The result is a really compelling illustration of themes in the song that plays with light, reflection, water, and prairie.

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Paige Bea - Autopilot.

London-based singer, songwriter and producer Paige Bea has released her new single "Autopilot" - the latest taste of upcoming EP 'Goodbye, Then!' out 25th November, self-released via The Orchard.

"Autopilot" is the third in a string of recent releases following comeback track "Melt" and most recent single "4x4". Collectively, these releases have firmly re-established Paige Bea within the alternative pop landscape after a 2 year hiatus from releasing music, with wide acclaim and support from notable outlets.

An enthralling, addictive ear-worm that combines R&B hooks and industrial alt-pop production, new single "Autopilot" zeros in on the notion of "no longer being in the drivers’ seat", with the track directly inspired by an argument Paige had with a friend who was trying to pull her out of a bad romantic situation.

“You think that I’m spineless / But my heart’s on autopilot /
I can’t stop / Not possible /
Cruising down love’s slipstream / In the front seat /
At the top speed / I can’t stop / Not possible”

Speaking on the inspiration behind the new single, Paige said: "I was in that all-too familiar phase of a bad relationship when you're losing your own agency and being wilfully ignorant in the face of advice from your oldest and trusted friends but you’re not quite ready to acknowledge the truth. I could see the impact it was having on me - losing sleep, listless and weighed down as I drifted between lover and friend, suspended in the middle of someone else's open relationship - but I still couldn’t untangle myself."

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SOMOH - Anything.

Get acquainted with exciting newcomer SOMOH (Pronounced Soe-Mow”) who today releases the video to your latest new indie-alternative obsession, “Anything.”  Much like her upcoming tracks on her debut EP “A Plan To Get Home” out next year, this track is a profoundly emotional, well-crafted song that explores her relatable feelings of love, friendship, family, and hardship.  “Anything” is available everywhere online via Tiny Library Records.

Speaking about “Anything,” SOMOH whose real name is Sophia Mohan said “This song is about coming to terms with your love for someone & knowing that you’d do just about anything for them. It’s a scary but beautiful feeling to fall that deeply for a person.” The song was produced and mixed by Joel Johnston, who has also produced and mixed SOMOH’s entire debut EP out on his own label, penciled in Spring 2023.

Speaking about her upcoming releases, SOMOH said “I’m really proud of this body of work, it’s been a long time coming. The main focus of this EP is about the transitional stages of life from childhood to your early 20s where part of you doesn’t feel ready to face all the changes. I think these songs convey a lot of those situations you have to deal with as you realise the world isn’t all sunshine and rainbows (e.g falling in love, coming to realisations about the people around you, how you treat yourself). I hope that people listening can find a part of their own story in my songs, it’s always nice to feel like you’re not alone in how you’re feeling.”

SOMOH is Sophia Mohan’s nickname and artist alias. She is 20 years old and hails from Ealing, London, born to a British father and an Italian mother. In her formative years, which she will tell “was a mess” when it came to listening to music, citing anything from Katy Perry to Neck Deep to The 1975 as artists she followed along with pop-punk that still has a special place in her heart. With her music influences more settled now, her music is currently influenced by Indigo De Souza, Alex G, The Japanese House, Adrianne Lenker and Far Caspian.

 

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Sohodolls - The Gilhooly's - The Hengles - Gillie

Photo - Catherine Harder

Sohodolls - Bad.

London's influential electro-rockers Sohodolls are back! After being out of the limelight for more than a decade, a globally enforced lockdown revived one of their classics ‘Bang Bang Bang Bang’ into an unexpected viral TikTok hit among the Gen Z glitterati, which has inspired the band to reform and release some stunning new music.

Following last month’s unveiling of new track ‘Letter To My Ex (Thank You, Goodbye)’, new single ‘Bad’ sees Maya Von Doll giving advice to her younger self on rebelling against gender specific advice:

“I regret not trusting my instinct to stand up for myself. So, this song is about understanding and accepting that fight instinct. About standing up for yourself and rejecting advice that I think is mostly given to young women in my line of work. You shouldn’t always act on it, but you shouldn’t deny its existence. We are all animals - females included!”, she further explains.

‘I can be good and sometimes clever, but when I’m bad I’m so much better’, is the seductive refrain of this stomping rock banger, which embeds catchy hooks under a thick gloss of gothic riffs. Pounding drums, whirring synths and fuzzy guitars melt into an infectious sludge earworm for all of us out there who are inherently bad!

“It took me years to realise I was being walked all over by bigger fish in the music industry. For example, as a burgeoning songwriter writing for other artists, I was given unfair deals that my then management justified as a way of getting on the ladder. Looking back, it was total rubbish and it basically amounted to intellectual property theft! I knew at the time that I could have fought for fairness, but I was told over and over again that to do so would give me a reputation of being difficult and I might not get to work with certain labels again.”, she reveals.

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The Gilhooly's - The Score.

This is one impressive indie rocker where the band are naturally slick and the vocals exude emotion and add an additional layer of power to the track. The bands promo tells us: 

‘The Score’ is a song about appreciating moments in life that didn’t seem a big deal at the time. Now upon reflection they are understood and cherished in a new way. The Gilhooly’s are a cult Glasgow band who came together in the 90’s around the time of Travis, Teenage Fan club and Cosmic Rough Riders. The Ex Cosmic’s Bass Player, James Clifford is now fully entrenched in the Gilhooly’s line up, adding Basslines and Harmonies.

With their old songs gaining attention, praise and Airplay, they have re-emerged from the shadows. Having  signed to Main St Records they released their first Single - STAR  ( No 1 Indy chart) in June 21 and followed up with - WILL GOD FORGIVE - ( No 2 Rock Chart). 

Along with a  new album release in November 21 - G10 - ( No 6 Rock Chart ) and touring Scotland with new songs, It’s been an incredibly busy year for the band. The Fans are back, talking and listening.

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The Hengles - Falling To Pieces.

Ever thought about Falling To Pieces? It’s not that far away as you might think. This new single by The Hengles is playing with all kinds of emotions. It’s deep. Way down. Don’t think it can’t happen to you, because it can! After a long tense, hot summer, this heated world needed a serious cool down. There’s just no alternative. 

And you know it! Falling To Pieces, seemingly starting out of nothing, evolving into an epic fiery Pop song as only The Hengles can do, wandering through nostalgic, eclectic angst, ending with a high note and finally returning to its sweet silent state. It’s a fact of life. So, come on in and join this celebration!

The Hengles have made considerable progress internationally. That resulted in airplay on radio in among others: Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, USA, UK, Denmark, Australia, Canada, Phillipines, Sweden, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Hungary and Austria. Singles from the band also entered the iTunes / Apple Music charts in: Netherlands, Finland, Belgium and Switzerland.

Influenced by more than 60 years of British and American pop music, The Hengles manage to blend this into their own style and give proof of their skill in writing and recording melodic, catchy pop songs with a twist.

TCBYML · The Hengles - Falling To Pieces

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Photo - Fin O'Hara

Gillie - I ti.

‘i ti’ is a song that announces a new beginning and a new creative chapter for Gillie, an intuitively gifted songwriter, guitarist and producer, Libertino are overjoyed to welcome onto the label. It is the first material the Carmarthenshire born artist has written in the Welsh language and the first song written and recorded after her return to live in Wales after spending her late teens and early twenties in London.

Deeply influenced by place, Gillie blends musically on ‘i ti’  the serenity of the Welsh countryside with the industrial undergrowth of city life, to create something hauntingly serene. Blending gold-flecked guitar loops into a ambient haze, Gillie harnesses the anxieties, stress and struggles that had congregated within her and weaves them into something unapologetic yet inherently intimate.

As Gillie explains: "This song centres around a period in my life where I was looking for a change of direction and hoping to rectify frustrations of feeling overwhelmed and worn out. The rhythm is an attempt to reflect the fast pace of a city life that I was ready to leave, whilst the dreamy vocals reflect escapism, and a yearning for something more. I began writing this track in my last month of living in London, but the song itself came to life and was fully realised once I made the move back to my homeland.

"Some of the lyrics are quite disjointed. It doesn’t so much tell a story as it tries to capture a feeling of making decisions. I (kind of) wrote it as a stream of consciousness and didn’t think too much about the concept. I wanted to capture a feeling without over analysing it. The first verse touches on how I often feel that I am pointlessly shouting into the ether, trying to be heard, whilst I slowly get older, collecting defects along the way. The second verse sees me trying to leave some of these thoughts behind, looking toward a new start as things gently begin to fall into place.

Libertino · Gillie - I ti

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Thallo - Liam Fender - Pitou - Micah P. Hinson

Photo - Abi Sinclair

Thallo - Crescent.

Upcoming Welsh (U.K.) artist Thallo makes a haunting, otherworldly blend of bedroom/dream-pop with contemporary classical touches and subtle jazz textures, laced with her featherlight vocal and accompanied by high-end cinematic visuals.

On her enthralling new Crescent EP, Thallo explores a unique subject matter, and one deeply personal to her – immobility. The three track EP chronicles the artist’s own story about an on-going condition causing chronic pain which began in 2020 and left her temporarily unable to walk or stand, locked-in by her condition after the world had been released from lockdown, forced to cancel her planned appearance at this year’s SXSW (re-schedule for 2023).

The title track ‘Crescent’ was inspired by a breakup and friends moving away, with its warm, uplifting brass section mirroring the song’s bittersweet paradox - the undercurrent of inadequacy a dependence on loved ones during a long-term condition can cause, contradicted by feelings of gratitude for the support received. As Thallo explains “I wasn’t as good a friend or girlfriend as I had wanted to be. I wrote the song upon realising I wouldn’t get the chance to ever make up for that imbalance and was left with the guilt of feeling indebted.”

This feeling of being an inadequate version of oneself is explored literally in the song’s music video, created by Abi Sinclair (Director/Producer) and Cat Jones (Director of Photography). It stars Thallo playing two versions of herself, with the broken Thallo trapped in an unknown surreal location in search for the complete, better version of herself.

The Crescent EP also includes the beautiful ‘Carry Me’, a gloriously, rich rush of multi-instrumentation and Thallo’s sublime vocal whirling in a jazz-infused dream before it’s emotive crescendo. Emotionally it captures the moment in time when Thallo first realised the seriousness of her condition; and the EP’s only Welsh language single, the climatic piano led ‘Pluo’ which explores the peculiar pain of watching the world return to normal following lockdown, whilst Thallo remained in what she describes as “My own personal lockdown.”

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Liam Fender - Love Will Conquer.

Newcastle-based musician Liam Fender releases his debut single: 'Love Will Conquer' alongside a semi-autobiographical music video set in the Fish Quay of his hometown North Shields and featuring actor Jacob Anderton ('Dark Angel', '13 Graves' and Coronation Street).

Love Will Conquer's unconventional structure delivers an almost hymn-like quality. Liam notes "Love Will Conquer's universal message of togetherness, belief in better times, and the importance of connection has only grown more poignant amid the turbulence of recent years."

A lifelong musician finally stepping out with his debut official release, Liam is a musical underdog and living proof that music truly can be a calling; he says "I haven't chosen to do this, it's just in my DNA."

If you've joined the dots between Liam's surname and his place of birth you may think he's onto something with his point about DNA. Either way his earthy, honest and optimistic songs showcase an artist more than capable of standing on his own two feet; extraordinary new single Love Will Conquer is just a small taste of what's to come.

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Pitou - Dancer.

Amsterdam based artist Pitou has shared new single ‘Dancer’ the third song from her upcoming debut album, after previous released songs ‘Big Tear’ and 'Angel'.

“I push myself into light, I need it more than ever” sings Pitou, as interwoven harp and guitar parts swell beneath her, supported by subtle but persistently grooving percussion. The song starts with a feeling of restlessness, towards the second verse Pitou builds in confidence. Just before the outro kicks in, we hear her voice almost disappear into a choir of sirens, only for her to come back in a final crescendo, where the first line of the song is repeated over and over again. It is Pitou’s plea: ‘move towards the light’ - to herself and anyone who needs it.

On her new single, Pitou says: “This movement, from dark to light and back again, sometimes feels very violent. Like a natural phenomenon, waves, that you are forced to give in to. I’ve been thinking about these waves, and how I would like to be more graceful in the surrendering. Make it less of a fight, and more of a dance.

The video of this song was shot with my dear friends Jasmine Karimova and Noa Jansma. The coming together of this song and the flow of us working together gave such beautiful energy. We had a lot of fun with this. The song Dancer had a hard time being written - this video was the opposite. I am very grateful to have these people around me."

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Micah P. Hinson - Carelessly.

Micah P. Hinson releases his newest orchestral-country single - "Carelessly" - the third single from the forthcoming album, I Lie To You, out December 2 (Ponderosa Records). "Hinson channels his inner John Prine as he offers a humble and poignant perspective on an issue that is once again in the spotlight." Read and share the full review via Glide.

Born into a strict fundamentalist Christian household in Memphis and raised in the evangelist Abilene, TX, Hinson sings with a prophet-like voice. His songs feel like a patchwork of life experience, from his unsettled early days through his more recent years as a devoted father navigating divorce. Infusing his raw, poetic folk lyrics with inspiration taken from the industrial and alternative music of his youth, Hinson has established a reputation as one of the more innovative and interesting singer/songwriters in the international alt-folk scene.

His songs feel like a patchwork of life experiences, from his early religious upbringing to fatherhood to difficult re But in early 2020, after releasing ten critically acclaimed albums and building a loyal international fanbase from the ground up, Micah P. Hinson nearly walked away from his music career. He felt trapped, explaining “It hit me that all I was doing was writing about my previous relationships and situations, and that meant I had nowhere to go. How can you progress as a human being into the future if all you're doing is writing about all the sh.t that chains you to the past?”

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