Category: Indie Vibes
Blake Baker Strips Down “Simply the Best” on “The Best”
Some songs are so tied to their original arrangement that stripping them back feels like a genuine risk. Blake Baker takes that risk on “The Best,” his reworking of Tina…
50mething Turns Cancer Recovery Into Quiet Encouragement on “Slowly Through the Night”
50mething is the project of Paul Jenner, a 58-year-old independent musician, composer, and producer based in Ealing, West London who came to music after careers as a dancer and a…
50mething Writes About Love the Second Time Around on “These Fine Lines”
50mething, the project of Paul Jenner, came to music later in life after years working as a dancer and a garden builder, and “These Fine Lines” finds him turning that…
Grey & Purple Songbook Turns Stage Fright Into Triumph on “This Is My Crescendo”
Grey & Purple Songbook works backward from most bands. Rather than writing music first and fitting words to it, this Oslo-based creative duo starts with a narrative, a theme, a…
Ronald Hage Builds “Paragliding” From the Piano Up
Ronald Hage doesn’t start his tracks in a DAW. He starts at an acoustic piano, working out a melody by hand before any software gets involved, and everything else, drums,…
Ryan Yingst Puts a Number on the Overlooked Work of Being a Musician on “Ordinary Means”
Ryan Yingst’s “Ordinary Means,” isn’t chasing anything grand. It’s a folk single built around the unglamorous parts of trying to make a living as a musician, and it earns its…
Den Edie Turns a Song He Wrote in 1986 Into “Holding On”
Some songs get written for a moment. Den Edie’s “Holding On,” was written for an entire life. The idea goes back to 1986, when Edie was a young sailor in…
DJ Thommek Finds a Gentle Groove on “Falling Back In Love”
DJ Thommek didn’t start out behind a laptop. The Düsseldorf-based producer’s roots are in guitar and double bass, recording early ideas onto cassette long before he ever touched digital production,…
Peningo Riders Pay Tribute to a Legendary NY Venue on “High Street Roadhouse”
Peningo Riders didn’t start out as a band. They started as a guitar lesson. Eddie Pellon signed up to learn from Russ Davis, and somewhere along the way the lesson…
KaiserKillers Trade Volume for Restraint on “Isolation”
Colchester’s KaiserKillers usually work in a different register than this. Their catalog runs on what the band themselves call PowerPopPunk, stacked guitars, tight harmonies, and an energy that nods back…
