How would you describe your musical journey with the country genre since you first started making music? Lance: Our journey in country music hasn’t always been the easiest. I (Lance Curtis) started playing music at a year old with my grandpa and uncle’s family band. I played with them whenever I could for 16 years, until my grandpa passed away in 2017. It was always a family affair and he…
Americana has been making quite a big comeback in the last couple of years, and if you’re curious as to why, you need to take a peek at what the underground has been submitting lately – and particularly what indie folk duo Mike Stinson and Johnny Irion are releasing this coming April in Working My Way Down. Much like their fellow underground artists making big waves on the other side of…
What’s something you’ve done differently in the “Spirit of the Trees” music video from your last video, “Diamond Sailor,” that you’re proud of? One thing we did differently on “Spirit of the Trees” was having me participate in the video more. I’m proud to be more hands-on, which makes it more personal for the viewer. What inspired the scenery and color schemes you incorporated in the “Spirit of the Trees”…
Jesse Lynn Madera’s latest release, “Unchained,” serves as the lead single from her forthcoming sophomore album, Belle Sent Me, and showcases Madera’s growth as an artist. It’s a compelling cover of Johnny Cash’s 1996 song of the same name, but the track is only similar in the broadest of strokes as Madera taps into something far more maternal and emotional with her take on the track. As a lead single,…
range of her sophisticated harmony in “Where’d You Go.” To say that Jenn Howard is giving the performance of her life from Valiant Woman’s title track to the unfiltered “Lay Down the Law” might not be doing what she’s done here justice; from where I sit, this is a watershed moment in both her career and the underground circuit she’s looking to break free from. FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/jennhowardmusic/ See, Valiant Woman doesn’t present us…
How has serving as a music director of a synagogue impacted your own creations and choices within the music industry? Thanks for having me here. I never intended to be a music Director at a Temple, but I must say it’s had a powerful impact on my art. I used to write songs, but the primary goal was doing something catchy and cool. But now – that’s changed. I try…
What do you hope Sonarpilot’s music creations bring to the world? There’s a lovely quote by Albert Einstein: “He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed”. Sonarpilot’s work is designed to make the audience stop for just a moment and feel that sense of wonder, step out of their everyday reality – even if it’s just…
Kyle and Emily Corner have made the step of transforming their life partnership as husband and wife into a musical collaboration. They have a good basis for releasing original songwriting as The Wandering Off. Many potential listeners will appreciate, going in, how the couple, especially Emily, surmounted towering obstacles to putting any music out. Emily suffered through two rounds with COVID and a laundry list of lingering side effects, so…
Percussion that resembles a fire’s powerful glow comes up against a melody that is just as evocative in Louis Siciliano’s “Translucent Dodecahedron,” one of the four powerful tracks included on the stunning new EP Ancient Cosmic Truth. The instruments dance in perfect cadence without breaking their trance here, but there’s a deliberate unevenness to the harmony they create that is utterly spellbinding and hard to forget. URL: https://louissiciliano.com/ A gentle groove…
What is one of your proudest moments as a group, and how did it impact your music career? Shaheed: Touring with Jurassic 5 nationally and abroad, and doing the work we do in the community with our foundation Knowledge Rhythm and Understanding for the youth. DJ Supreme: One of our proudest moments to me was touring the world with Jurassic 5. We traveled to the UK and Germany representing with…
In songs like “This is for Someone,” Nolen Sellwood is so much more than a singer; he’s a vocalist who can own the energy of the room even when he’s coming to us from within the four walls of a recording studio. His charisma is one of the focal points to be found in his new album Otherwise, and whether you’ve heard his work before or not, he’s likely to make…
“Insane” is an intriguing take on the inside of your mind. Why is it necessary to cover mental health topics in your music? Mental health is a very important topic to cover because so many people still have such a negative view on those who struggle with mental health. It’s something that people don’t take seriously until it’s too late. Many people keep their struggles to themselves because they are…
Whether grinding out a cerebral jam in “New Blood,” laying down something a bit more calculated in “Soul Power,” hammering away at texture-based ridges and grooves in “Electric Revolution” or disassembling what feels like a familiar arrangement in “Cold Outside,” there’s something very experimental about what The Veldt is playing in their new album Entropy is the Mainline to God. Still keeping a flame lit in the American underground and sporting…
1. Can you describe your songwriting process? Does it differ for every song you write? My process works this way, pick up a guitar or sit at a piano and try to stumble on a seed of inspiration. From there it’s about doing the emotional digging to fully uncover the story and message of the song and then applying craft to it in a way that avoids cliché. 2. Why…
Do you find that your upbringing contributes to your current musical creations? If so, in what ways? Yes. I came from a family of musicians. Music was in our home, and it was always a part of our culture. My mother and my father, as well as my sister are singers. My brother, Paul Lakatos, is considered one of the foremost guitar players in the world today and I’ve been…
How did Tim Snider & Wolfgang Timber come to fruition? At what point did you all know you wanted to work together? The band started playing together in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic and I’m still trying to wrap my head around how the whole thing came about. It can take a long time to find the right players for band and weirdly enough it almost felt like…
What is the meaning behind “Touro de Lide”, and what made you choose a Portuguese title? RONE WORTHEN (lead singer): The meaning of “Touro de Lide” is to be as bullish and as aggressive as necessary to protect what’s important to you. We choose a Spanish title because bull fighting is romanticized but the reality is the matador is seldom in any serious danger, and the bull has virtually no chance…
Music snobs harbor the misguided idea that modern country music, Nashville in particular, produces dreck the way rabbits birth offspring. Doom and shallow diving await any listeners wading through the slush pile of any modern music as creative pools in many genres are drier than ever before. Country music, as we know it today, isn’t an inherently vacuous vehicle for aspiring singers and musicians. Profiteers abound wherever you look willing…
With a brooding introduction via the guitar strings, the stately melody that will power The Real J Israel’s incredible juggernaut “A Better Me” comes into focus ready to crater anything that comes in its path. Israel begins to sing, his voice tainted with a hesitance that will grow into a rather endearing quality as we press forward, but there’s nothing but assertiveness in his lyrics. He straddles the rhythm of…
If you are looking for an excellent Christmas song this year, you will not find better than Dianña’s new single “Missing You Underneath the Mistletoe”. This gorgeously rendered, patient, and powerful track doesn’t try grabbing you immediately but, instead, unfolds with simmering yet understated passion throughout. It’s the third single that she has released this year following earlier tracks such as “Hands” and “Calm Down Karen” The track is currently…