Lorde broke onto the scene at the age of sixteen with her unconventional EP The Love Club. ‘Royals’ became an instant hit, and before the year was out, so was her album Pure Heroine. Regardless of her age, the LP was full of clever songwriting and forward-thinking pop production that found their niche in the ears of many listeners. She soon began touring the world and wrote a song that was featured in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1. Because her music connected with millennial teens around the world, she was quickly heralded as “the voice of a generation”, though she’s not particularly fond of that description. Her sophomore album, Melodrama, which we named the best pop album of the 2010s, moves on to slightly more mature topics, while also embracing a more cinematic and emotional (melodramatic, if you will) sound. In a newsletter from May, Lorde revealed that work is well underway on her third record, telling fans that she’s “truly jazzed for you to hear it.”
BENEE
Stella Rose Bennett (stage name BENEE) was born in Auckland in 2000. Though she began releasing music commercially in 2017, it was her dance craze-spawning 2019 single ‘Supalonely’ that launched her into the international spotlight, becoming a quarantine pop anthem thanks to its catchy, relatable hook and easy-going vibe. She’s won four New Zealand Music Awards and ‘Supalonely’ has gone Platinum in several countries, including the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. Her debut album Hey u x experiments with a variety of genres and lyrical styles, but retains BENEE’s trademark indie grooviness.
Lontalius
Lontalius is a Wellington-based singer-songwriter known for his sad indie style. The simple, accessible lyrics paint palpable pictures of heartbreak and longing over sparse but effective instrumentals; his work is comforting, immersive, relatable yet artful. Lontalius released his debut album I’ll Forget 17 in 2016, and his second, 2019’s All I Have, was produced by Grammy-winning producer Om’Mas Keith (Frank Ocean, Erykah Badu, Sa-Ra).
The Naked and Famous
An 80s-influenced band, The Naked and Famous hail from Auckland, where they formed in 2007 and have spent the last thirteen years curating their indie-electronic style. The genres that best describe their style are post-punk and synth-pop, though the overall feel of their work is soaring and anthemic. Led by vocalist Alisa Xayalith and instrumentalist/vocalist Thom Powers, the group broke through with their 2010 debut album Passive Me Aggressive You and have since released four more records, most recently this year’s Recover.
Yumi Zouma
Yumi Zouma found their origins as an alternative pop band in Christchurch in 2014. Consisting of Christie Simpson, Josh Burgess, Charlie Ryder, and Olivia Campion, the group first started writing music together by collaborating over email after the Christchurch earthquake. Their clean, modern aesthetic pairs well with the funky, atmospheric production, which anchored their debut album, Truth or Consequences, released earlier this year. An alternate version of the album arrived in October, breathing freshness into its ten polished tracks.
In a world saturated by bedroom pop, 19-year-old Kansas-based Jordana Nye,aka Jordana, has been stoically carving her own path through in genre since 2018. Her first single ‘Canvas’ introduced us to herraw, emotionally charged songwriting. With the expanded re-release of her debut album Classical Notions of Happiness in March of this year, Jordanadisplayed the true expanse of her sound: a culmination of her upbringing, where she was encouraged to play piano by her father – she switched to violin and then subsequently guitar, ukulele, and bass to name but a few – and her own experiences as an adolescent, the expanded LP plays with glorious variety. Scattered with ethereal, feather-light and vocally sparse tracks like delicately sombre album opener ‘Remembering U’, ‘Interlude’, and throbbing ‘Losing It’, there’s a sensitivity that runs alongside the smart guitar-led tracks like ‘Calvary’, ‘Crunch’, and ‘Jackie’s 15’. Since her debut, she’s collaborated with producer Melvvon two EPs: Something To Say and …To You, which in turn have been combined to form her sophomore album, Something To Say To You, out December 4 via Grand Jury. Lead singles ‘I’ll Take It Boring’, ‘Big’, and ‘Forgetter’ showcase Jordana’s ability to orchestrate intricate, finely balanced and vocally impressive bedroom pop, while ‘Divine’ and ‘I Guess This Is Life’ possess a driving energy that’s offset by her penchant for exploring the vast range of human emotion in a truthful and honest manner.
We caught up with Jordanafor this edition of our Artist Spotlight series, where we showcase up-and-coming artists and give them a chance to talk about their music.
It seems like a pretty basic question, but it’s one that’s important to ask particularly in these… trying times. How have you been coping with this Covid world? Has there been anything specifically that’s kept you afloat?
Iwill not lie, I have had so much trouble writing, especially with nothing to really do…other than that…and work my dishwashing job at the local brewery…I have so many hours to record but sometimes nothing comes out. However, I have had the pleasure of going to the studio through this (and getting tested) and that is where I get out all of my emotions in my songs out usually. There is a lot of brain racking, lots of replaying the song to find out exactly what I need to say and how to say it, and lots of crying (this is good tho bc the emotions have been acknowledged and are now in a song I am proud of!!! Yay!!). But one thing that has really been keeping me afloat is of course the people listening to these songs and telling me how much it means to them; people telling me where they heard it for the first time, how they listened, and how it made them feel in that moment. That’s all so important and it’s happening more and more and reminds me how much it is so worth continuing to pursue, even from when I was 9 wanting to do this for my life.
How did creating two EP’s to form one LP change the meaning of the songs featured?
Creating the two EP’s to form the LP was originally my label’s idea, but it ended up working out perfectly to get the first half done and mixed so I could just keep writing and release when I was ready!
Following on from the previous question, how did you approach making Something To Say and To You? Do you see them as separate entities or did you approach it as a singular LP that you then split out?
Melvv and I definitely talked about how these EP’s have two different atmospheres, where Something To Say is more vague and To You is more direct, but when they all come together, the atmospheres collide, with different emotions in a matter of minutes, throughout the album, with all of the different genres we touch.
If you could only listen to one artist for the rest of your life, who would it be and why?
Right now I would say Toro y Moi. They have everything from dance bops to crank the volume up to like ‘Freelance’ and ‘So Many Details’ and chill, mellow beats to study and relax to like ‘Drive It Down’ and ‘Omaha’.
When you want good honest feedback on your music when it’s at the early stages, who do you turn to? Who’s the person who you know will offer helpful words of wisdom or constructive criticism?
I send it to Jef (Melvv who has produced most of my music) and he gives me his honest opinion. Sometimes I will send it to some friends that are in different states, and they give me their opinion; I don’t really show people much anymore because I guess I want it to be perfect before anyone else hears it?? So I don’t really have a person I turn to for that other than my manager or the person I work on the music with because we are usually all in the same room and by the time the session is done, we usually have an idea of what we want and we just sit there with a diabolical smile because we know it’s fye. 😈😆
Is there a specific feeling that comes with making a track that you know is great? Is there a moment of “Oh yeah… I’m onto something here”? For reference, for me, that sounds like the one minute mark in your latest single ‘I Guess This Is Life’ where the drums disappear and the focus snaps back to your vocals. The effect is just beautiful, you have your listener enraptured.
Ohhhh yessss!!! Even with the first session I did with Melvv, we started writing ‘Crunch’. This was in December of 2019. We wanted to set up the live drums at Sparta Studios and Marvy Ayy was our studio engineer and he was testing out the drum levels by playing a hard ass beat in four and Jef just started recording and we got the entire thing and chopped it to fit a seven time signature. And we just kept going from there and it was so natural. Then we added the bass with distortion and the harmonies and the guitar and we were like…. “damn…we really did something huh 😳…”
Also thank you! Yes I love taking the beat away then slamming it back in it, is very satisfying to the ears.
You’ve always been very open and honest in your music in terms of documenting the wide variety of human emotion that you experience. This is particularly shown on your debut album Classical Notions of Happiness and has continued through to your musical output currently. Is this something you set out to do consciously or was it more natural in its fruition?
I would say both. The first album wasn’t even really an album until I looked at all these different singles I had piled up and was like, “I want a place to put these! Let’s slap em on an album and fill in the rest!” but it wasn’t all that easy at that time. Especially because I had really only been recording for a year and I was getting so frustrated with myself to come up with things and to work my way around the programming. Plus, emotions are important for writing songs and there were still days I had to experience to really actually get the emotions out to finish it at the time I said I would. With a lot of pent up emotions over time from shit happening, it just takes a while to dig them out and just put them into words to even know what is really going on because you get overrun with so many at once. Or sometimes, you’re just completely numb. It was one or the other at that time. Either way, it’s a mix of knowing you have the natural capability of playing music, but having to force the motivation when you feel most unmotivated, uninspired, depressed, or most of all, when you can’t feel anything at all.
On Friday night (November 28), Dua Lipa hosted a star-studded livestream called Studio 2054. The virtual concert featured appearances from Elton John, Bad Bunny, Miley Cyrus, Kylie Minogue, Angèle, J Balvin, and the Blessed Madonna. After revealing she’s been working on a new track with FKA twigs, Lipa also teased their collaboration – preview it below.
“Twigs and I actually know each other through a mutual friend called Billy,” Dua Lipa told KKBOX before the show. “She’s working on some new stuff and she hit me up and was like ’Do you wanna get in the studio, should we do something together?’ We made a song that we both really love.”
Earlier this week, Dua Lipa received six Grammy nominations, including Record of the Year for her single ‘Don’t Start Now’ and Album of the Year for Future Nostalgia. She was recently announced as the musical guest on an upcoming episode of Saturday Night Live.
Last month, FKA twigs revealed she’s made a “whole new album” during quarantine. Her last LP was last year’s excellent MAGDALENE.
“She’s working on some stuff and she hit me up and was like ’Do you wanna work together?’. We made a song that we both really love. We’re gonna tease a little bit of the song [in #Studio2054].” pic.twitter.com/OvYZgaXUIW
Brooklyn rapper SAINt JHN and Kanye West have teamed up for a new collaborative track called ‘Smack DVD’. Check it out below, alongside an accompanying music video.
During Kanye’s new verse, which includes references to The President, Elon Musk, his wife Kim Kardashian, and Breonna Taylor, the screen turns black with a message that reads: “Kanye did not approve this video. This might be his first time watching it right now. Kanye if you’re watching please raise your right hand. Your part is almost over it was a great verse. Can I get some Yeezys in a color way for not a cult?”
Just last week, SAINt JHN released his latest LP WHILE THE WORLD WAS BURNING, which also featured appearances from Future, Lil Uzi Vert, 6LACK, DaBaby, and more. In addition to running for US president, West also recently dropped a new track called ‘Nah Nah Nah’.
Sleater-Kinney singer/guitarist and Portlandia creator Carrie Brownstein is set to write and direct a forthcoming biopic about Seattle rock band Heart. Frontwoman Ann Wilson revealed on the SiriusXM show ‘Volume West’ that work is already underway on the Amazon feature film, which will be centered around Wilson and her sister and bandmate Nancy’s rise to fame. Listen to a clip from the show below.
“I saw the first draft of the script,” Wilson said. “It’s really cool. [Brownstein’s] working with the movie company Amazon and with the producer, Linda Obst, who did Sleepless in Seattle.” She added that she “[doesn’t] have any idea” who will appear on the film. “I’m just as excited about finding out as you are.”
Earlier this year, Brownstein premiered The Nowhere Inn, her collaborative film with St. Vincent, at the Sundance Film Festival. Her last album with Sleater-Kinney, The Center Won’t Hold, came out last year.
‘Trance Away’ the latest single by Melasól was released just yesterday. The song comes after Melasól’s self-titled EP which was published earlier this year.
‘Trance Away’ will be part of Melasól’s forthcoming EP which is due to be published in the early months of 2021. Sound-wise Melasól take on a different approach with ‘Trance Away’, engaging a more synth-layered soundscape, bringing out a new element in their signature sound.
Patricia Lalor has shared a new single called ‘To Cope’, taken from her upcoming EP This Is How We Connect, While You Stand So Tall. Check it out below.
Out next Friday, December 4, the 15-year-old Wexford singer’s new 4-track project also includes the previously released single ‘This Man Thought He Saved Me’. Last month, she released her Covers EP, featuring her own take on songs by Radiohead, Alex G, and more. Also this year, Lalor issued her Sleep Talk and Do It Again EPs.
Read our Artist Spotlight feature on Patricia Lalor here.
The Weeknd and Sabrina Claudio have linked up on a festive new track called ‘Christmas Blues’. The song serves as the title track to Claudio’s new LP, which also includes a guest appearance by Alicia Keys (‘Wintertime’). Check out ‘Christmas Blues’ below.
“@nasriatweh, @kavehrastegar, & i created this Christmas album in the beginning of this summer with the intention of bringing a sense of peace, nostalgia, and/or happiness even if the feeling only lasted for the length of a song,” Claudio wrote on Instagram. “We really had no idea where we’d end up…we were just creating because it felt good.”
She added: “To @aliciakeys & @theweeknd, thank you for believing in this intention. my god, never could i have imagined that two of the most influential figures in my life & journey as an artist would be accompanying me on an album i did purely out of the desire to shine a tiny light through an incredibly dark year.”
Christmas Blues follows on from Sabrina Claudio’s sophomore album, Truth Is, which came out last year.
Earlier this week, The Weeknd accused the Grammys of being “corrupt” after receiving zero nominations for the 2021 awards.
Kurt Vile appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers to perform his rendition of John Prine’s ‘Speed of the Sound of Loneliness’. Check it out below.
“My family loved John Prine and we booked this act because we thought it’d be a perfect song to listen to together on that couch,” Meyers said while introducing Vile. “But now we can’t be together, and it was unplanned, but this is a perfect song for anyone not with their loved ones this year.”
Vile’s cover of ‘Speed of the Sound of Loneliness’ appears on his new Speed, Sound, Lonely KV (ep), which came out last month via Matador. The project also features a duet of ‘How Luck’ from 1979’s Pink Cadillac featuring the late Prine himself.
Alanis Morissette has shared a cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s classic ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’. It arrives with an accompanying music video directed by Victor Indrizzo and featuring Morissette and her family. Check it out below.
“It is an honor to cover this heartwarming song,” Morissette said in a statement. “The lyrics feel more pertinent than ever and this year has been a year of great resilience and adapting and feeling all the feelings. May this song serve as a big hug to you and your sweet families and friends. Everything is going to be okay in the end, and if it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”
