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From the band - We’ve taken timeless, sultry jazz standards and have combined that sweet sound with R&B/Soul, and a twist of pop/rock. We released our debut album Natural Thing late May and the response has been incredible! We have just been nominated for Best New Artist and Female Vocalist of the Year for the 2020 Limelight Music Awards, and we have hit 25K monthly listeners on our Spotify!
We wrote and played every song on the album of course, but we are especially proud because before we did that we built our very own recording studio from the ground up, Underground Recording Co. located in Sagamore Beach. We recorded, produced, mixed, and mastered the entire album ourselves and are just over the moon from everyone’s response so far.
We are in the midst of making a music video with New England Emmy Award winner Darby Lyons expected to release next month, and in October we are releasing the next single off our second album.
We were going to start a East Coast tour back in March starting at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC. That came to a quick halt for obvious reasons. We plan on touring once everyone is safe and healthy. Until then we are going to keep recording, releasing, and be as creative as we can.
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Dark moody indie rock outfit Mt. Doubt debuts new first single "Dark Slopes Away" off their upcoming LP 'Doubtlands' on Last Night From Glasgow.
Built up around the songwriting and vision of band-leader Leo Bargery, Mt. Doubt has been a shifting mass of musical output since the band’s genesis, which saw the release of their debut album ‘My Past is a Quiet Beast’ in 2015.
Ever-active, Bargery quickly went on to release sophomore record ‘In Awe of Nothing’ in 2016 (on Scottish Fiction Records) before releasing three EPs, ‘The Loneliness of the TV Watchers’, ‘Moon Landings’ and ‘This Must Mean Something Awful’, throughout 2017 and 2018. Taking cues from Bargery’s musical and literary influences, Mt. Doubt deal in the darker side of things, often dipping a limb in the atmospheric while remaining lyrically-driven and unflinchingly personal.
Four years in, and Mt. Doubt have performed across the country: from Inverness to Brighton, from the Isle of Skye to Cardiff, and a whole lot of places in between. Including appearances alongside the likes of Idlewild, White Lies + We Were Promised Jetpacks. In late 2019, the band signed to Last Night From Glasgow in advance of releasing their third album – slotted for September 2020
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Those who have spent time in the mountains of southern Appalachia know of their mystical qualities, and if there is an artist who can capture their spirit and embody it in a song, it’s Anya Hinkle. Seasoned by her years in the Bluegrass/folk outfits of Deliah Low and Tellico, her songs reflect the authentic and soulful musical tradition of her western North Carolina home — so much so that one earned her 1st place in the prestigious 2019 Chris Austin Songwriting Contest. For her second single for Organic Records, Hinkle has chosen the darkly powerful “Hills of Swannanoa.” Co-written with noted musician and ceramics artist Akira Satake, it’s based on a true story of an early 20th century flood that took place in the heart of the region.
“‘Hills of Swannanoa’ is the story of the Great Flood of 1916,” the singer-songwriter says. “The unusually heavy mid-summer rains that year, coming in addition to heavy logging in the Carolina mountains, caused severe flooding of the Swannanoa and French Broad Rivers and heavy damage in the Asheville area. My friend, Akira, had written an instrumental tune called ‘Swannanoa’ after moving to nearby Black Mountain almost 20 years ago to start a ceramics studio, and he asked me if I might want to write some lyrics. I let my mind wander to the beautiful Swannanoa Valley, where I spent a lot of time with my daughter when she was very small. There is a mystical feeling there: vibrations from the ancient Cherokee, heavy mists that shroud the hills, generous green that carpets the valleys. It feels sacred, sad and beautiful.”
Inspired by the tune and her own feel for the area, Hinkle wrote a chilling story that weaves tragic vignettes from the flood’s history into a compelling saga built around a father and daughter.
“The modal scale of the tune, somewhere in between a major and minor key, naturally gives the listener a feeling of both beauty and tragedy,” she explains. “I began to read about the flood and let the story develop from there, creating my own song that knits together seamlessly with Akira’s instrumental melody. The story is fictional but based on true events: prisoners really did drown in their cells, all of Asheville’s bridges were washed away, hundreds of houses were destroyed, dozens of people were killed.”
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Like the rain forests from which their name derives, the steady beat of the west coast can be found within the sound of Carmanah. From muddy blues-funk to light soaring melodies, Carmanah creates music that curves and tumbles through valleys and over peaks guiding the listener on a celebratory sonic journey.
Recognizing Carmanah’s passion for their home and the ways it influences their music, renown producer Gus Van Go (The Arkells, Sam Roberts, Wintersleep) coined the term “West Coast Soul” to describe their unique sound. The band’s first album, Speak in Rhythms produced two #1 CBC Music tracks, the effervescent ‘Roots’ and shimmering, brooding ‘Nightmare’, setting the tone for this new west coast sound.
With one album behind them and one ahead, Carmanah is crafting a musical niche of their very own, a vintage blend of the intuitive and the technical; a blend that lies somewhere among roots, rock and blues — all seamlessly woven together by Laura Mina Mitic’s soulfully luminous vocals.
Iris, their forthcoming album is a natural evolution and a moody counterpoint to their debut. Recorded between the wild forests of B.C. and the concrete high rises of Brooklyn, Iris is a heartfelt offering, a tapestry of thoughtful stories for our time. Undulating rhythms and bountiful instrumentation create a rich sonic backdrop for driving melodies and potent lyricism. The first track ‘Mountain Woman’ shows rousing vocals layered atop of propulsive rhythms, a joyful assertion of feminine energy and natural power. Lead single ‘As I See You’ is one of the gentler songs on the album, a sultry composition that speaks of friendship and holding up the people you love while valuing what they love in you. It’s a track that carries a compassionate message; “By embracing those who love us, within ourselves we can find a sense of home and belonging in our own skin”, says Mitic, “By caring for the environment around us, we also care for ourselves.”
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“My best songs are written when I’m having the worst time,” says Alex Little with a wry laugh. “There’s no songs about feeling good. It’s about connecting to that deep dark part of myself, which is the reason why I make music.”
This blunt emotional honesty is the driving force behind Vancouver’s Alex Little & the Suspicious Minds, whose scorching garage-pop songs unflinchingly tackle drug addiction, mental health and heartbreak. And yet, despite the heavy subject matter, the group’s soaring choruses and loud guitars mean that the mood is cathartic rather than heavy.
Little previously played in bands as a drummer, and when she picked up a guitar, she reached out to her friend Andy Bishop (White Ash Falls, Twin River) to teach her a few tricks. “She already knew the basic chords, so I just showed her a couple of new things,” remembers Andy. “The next time we jammed, she showed up with a great melody she had been working on.”
Songs began pouring out of them, and drummer Cody Hiles (The Zolas) and bassist Mike Rosen got involved. Together, they honed a sound that blends searing distortion with aching pop hooks and a psychedelic wash of reverb. “It’s got that late 1970s, early 1980s New York kind of vibe,” Andy reflects. “Just stripped-down rock and roll.”
These songs come from a place of darkness, but the lasting impression is one of four friends cranking their amps and moving past the pain through a shared love of music. “The world is crippling and hard,” Alex says frankly. “I feel very lucky that I have this band as an outlet for all the emotions and turmoil.”
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