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Ana & Gene – See Me Smile: a Riffed Out Power Pop Anthem for Unapologetic Selfhood

Posted on 23 June 2026

Imagine a fusion of the hook in Smells Like Teen Spirit and Hanson’s iconic MMMBop with Pixies-esque distortion drifting through the guitars before Blondie and Morrissey enter the mix, and you’ll get a good idea of the euphoria which swells through the sticky-sweet hit See Me Smile by power pop powerhouse Ana & Gene.

Once there has been enough syrupy harmony, the award-winning duo unleashes raw-as-a-razorblade-cut riffs, leaving swathes of adrenaline to drink in while visualising what it means to be unapologetically happy in the skin of your authenticity instead of wearing the uniform of socially prescribed happiness. See Me Smile is as empowering as it is uplifting, and therein lies the beauty of the always infectiously high-voltage duo.

The Chicago duo’s cross-genre fingerprints remain unmistakable, with Gene Roberts’ gold-certified pop history and Anastacia Bella’s research-led songwriting perspective feeding the track’s bright bite without sanding down its sharper edges. Since forming during the strange stillness of 2020, Ana & Gene have built their own lane through award recognition, international nominations and indie chart success, but See Me Smile feels more personal than a résumé flex. It is a Machiavellian grin with rebellious resistance behind it.

See Me Smile is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Rose Pedal’s How Did I End Up Here? Turns Indie Pop Uncertainty into a Sci-Fi Western Fever Dream

Posted on 6 June 2026

How Did I End Up Here? A question we have all undoubtedly asked ourselves countless times before. Rose Pedal pose it into a spacey, adrift atmosphere on their latest single, tinged with psychedelically cosmic experimentalism, uniting us through collective bafflement while tearing through the myth that everyone around us has life figured out.

After a Tarantino-esque intro that would make any Texan spaceman feel right at home, How Did I End Up Here? nestles into an atmosphere that enmeshes sci-fi sonic insignia with tenderly consoling reverberations. Echoes of The National drift through the emotional architecture before the track takes an interstellar turn and broadsides with a fiery spoken-word rap verse.

The Ohio-born indie pop trio, made up of a producer, a singer and a rapper, live at the intersection of organic and digital, where acoustic hues of intimacy bleed warmth into layers of electronica. Their sound carries the synth-pop gloss of Miike Snow and the grungy, lyrically driven oddness of Gorillaz, yet Rose Pedal remain entirely their own strange organism.

Rose Pedal is exactly the kind of artist capable of pushing experimentalism into the mainstream. The commercial potential of this seminal single belies its refusal to contort authenticity into archetypal aural monotony. Even outside of the orbit of most contemporary indie artists, they’re effortlessly accessible, endlessly charismatic and infinitely playlistable.

How Did I End Up Here? is now available to stream on all major platforms, including YouTube and Apple Music.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Inside Starlight Fever, Isaiah Angel Hubbird Found Pop’s Softest Nerve and Made It Shine with the Starlight Fever LP

Posted on 3 June 2026

Starlight Fever, the debut album from the Chicago-hailing singer-songwriter Isaiah Angel Hubbird, teases indie folk pop into the framing of classical arrangements without altering the quintessential instrumentation or architecture. The diaphanous sweeps of choral chamber pop through the melodies and the way his voice harmonises on an octave that would send shivers down the spines of celestial beings bring rare arcane grace to 12 singles which refuse the parameters of contemporary pop.

The album aligns more with Y2K and 2010s stylings, from the era when intimate candour was celebrated and Plain White Ts reigned supreme in the footsteps of vulnerable singer-songwriters such as Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley. Each release is profound with wonder, tenderness, and the wide-open soul of an artist who uses his innate ability to feel deeply to share his gift through sound. It is almost as if starlight refracts straight through his soul-salving scores of scintillation.

Born and raised in Chicago, Hubbird began writing music in 2014 under DreamsofYou before releasing projects including Boundless Rose, Finding Our Way, and I Am Dead (Without You). Since reclaiming his full name in 2020, his acoustic singer-songwriter world has become a vessel for expositions on anxiety, depression, love, hope, and emotional release.

Starlight Fever is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

antwan_nawtna’s Experimental Hip-Hop Fever Dream, Mango Flavoured Lips, Hits with an 8-Bit Sugar Rush

Posted on 3 May 2026

The irreplaceably one and only hip-hop titan of experimentalism, antwan_nawtna, has dropped his new EP, AntwanWonka, and if you thought you heard it all with his carnivalesque, quasi-macabre 2025 LP, Cirque du Ghoul/Antwan’s Circus, the EP will force you to adjust the parameters of your perceptions of the artist and his limitless eccentricity.

Drifting into a dreamier, trappier, more psychedelically lush palette with the standout single, Mango Flavoured Lips, the independent emissary of quirky urban alchemy found himself in 8-bit territory; the tones are bathed in a celestial glow, adding a sense of fantastical scintillation to the production, which draws to a close and leaves you feeling like you’ve just awoken from the most sugary fever dream known to man.

There is a narcotic softness to the atmosphere, but antwan_nawtna keeps the track strange, playful, and unmistakably left of centre, letting the synth tones glimmer while the rhythm rolls through with a woozy late-night gait. The way he bends hip-hop into something so surreal and game-lit gives Mango Flavoured Lips its own unruly magic. Based out of the South Eastside of Chicago, antwan_nawtna continues to prove that underground rap still has plenty of room for imagination, oddity, and fearless tonal mutation when it’s in the hands of someone willing to warp the frame.

Mango Flavoured Lips is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Apple Music and Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Amber Kori seduced Chicago Deep House with her latest mix, Buzz Me In

Posted on 3 March 2026

Amber Kori’s Buzz Me In is as close to ASMR seduction as deep house gets. By choosing romanticism over the superficial sheen of lust-fuelled progressions, she created a soulfully euphonic cut that grows more hypnotic each time the hook returns.

The Chicago deep-house evocateur threads her reprising lyricism through the mix with a breathy confidence, turning “buzz me in” into the ultimate trigger phrase for the steamy atmosphere she builds around it. The effect is practically the sonic equivalent of a handprint on a steamed-up car window; condensed heat meeting the smooth friction of soul-deep passion.

The instrumental minimalism works in her favour. Rather than filling space for the sake of motion, she allows the air between the beats to heighten the intimacy. Her harmonies drip their honeyed timbre through every pore of the extended mix, giving the track a slow-burning sensuality that can only flow through sincerity. It’s romantic deep house distilled to its most potent form, shaped by someone who knows how to make atmosphere feel tactile.

Born in Harvey, Illinois, in a home where house music was woven into everyday life, Kori sharpened her songwriting chops early and carried them into a career defined by sensual imagination and emotional proximity. Now operating through her own label, Feel Hat Music, she moves comfortably between RnB and house; always letting the emotion of her singles guide the melodies.

Buzz Me In is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Soundcloud. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

A&R Factory Interview: Antwan Talks Recovery, Reinvention, and Chicago Nights

Posted on 5 December 2025

Chicago rapper and producer Antwan spoke to us about the slow-burn path that led him to start releasing music in 2018, the years of hesitation before that, and the emotional weight behind his latest album Cirque du Ghoul / Antwan’s Circus. Built during a period of recovery, the project pulls from dark nights, personal reckonings, and the chaos of the city around him. In the interview, he digs into how the circus theme emerged, the influence of Chicago’s winters and nightlife, and the support network that helped get the record off the ground. There’s also talk of future collabs, switching up his sound, and the wrestling references he keeps tucked into his bars. It’s a conversation full of openness, humour, and the kind of realism that underpins every track he puts out.

Welcome to A&R Factory, antwan, it’s great to have you here and to shine a light on the next chapters you’re building. You’ve been around music since your early teens, but you didn’t start releasing until 2018. What finally pushed you from being a kid soaking it all in to someone ready to put their own voice out there?

Well the lack of money and studio equipment was one thing is what I always said, but honestly that shit sounds so stupid looking back lmfao; I probably could’ve just recorded on my phone or some and just dropped tracks like that, but I wasn’t really thinking; by 2018 I feel like I had to just put that “Antwan” name more out there music wise- like I kept saying “I make music” or “I’m a rapper” since I had started this journey at like 14, but I didn’t have nothing to back that statement up, so it was just time to stop yappin and start putting in work. To be honest, when I look back at it, that shit was soooo easy, I don’t know why I took so long on dropping anything- I think it was just the procrastination and also that feeling of just being unsure with myself, but I’m glad how everything played out after the first couple of releases. I credit my brother Bando for the quote “shut up and drop already”. That’s grade A motivation right there lmaoo.

Your recent album holds a lot of emotional weight because it was created while you were in Recovery. How did that period shape the sound, the writing, or even the way you approached the studio?

Yea….. that recovery/sobriety journey was hell. It just felt like a weird time I’ll be honest with you…… it felt like I had to find myself again, not just as a person, but as an artist as well; basically kinda just start from scratch, and I hated that, but it had to be done and I think it played off pretty well. The love for the music kinda died a bit, so I had to find that spark again too. I did so much scrapping and a lot of re-writing of songs until I finally got that perfect idea and sound, which ended up being the whole kinda dark circus vibe; like this wasn’t supposed to be an album, it was supposed to be 2 separate EP’s, but once I had started writing about circus clowns and this quote on quote circus, the album just started getting stacked together like some legos lmaoo. I knew I wanted to do something different since the last EP was just some like lovey dovey shit, I had to switch it up big time, had to show people the real me, and I think I did that. The recovery journey helped a lot- you can most definitely hear it in the music, there’s tracks where you can hear it, “Drugs Make The Circus Go Round / R.I.P A 2” you can hear it, it’s nothing but pure raw emotion, like if you listen closely to the end you can hear me kinda like choke up a bit, again it’s just nothing but pure emotion throughout the whole album. The writing part has always stood the same, it was always some real life experiences, I think just this time around was different because I had opened up hella more than I normally do, and really had dived into almost like my day in the life, and really dived into my head.

You’ve said the album means a lot to you, which really comes through. When listeners press play, what’s the one thing you hope they feel or understand about you that they might miss otherwise?

When the listeners press play I just want them to feel that everything that I write and record is all coming from real life events and what not- I want them to feel all that truthfulness, that realness of me hitting rockbottom, the realness of struggling with addiction and dealing with mental stuff as well- like this shit wasn’t a game, this shit actually happened, you know, people saw this first hand, and there’s a few who can attest to that. I just want them to hear what it was really like, and how it ended up, and not to just see me as this drunk druggie, cuz there’s some that see me that way still, which isn’t the case; we all go through something and deal with it how we can, I just chose the easy way to deal with everything, and that was alcohol and drugs, but shit happens man, and I’m not tryna make excuses either, I’m just saying how it is. If somebody is feeling the same way I felt, you know I’m always open to talk or just be that ear to hear em out. I also want to let the listeners know that it’s okay to ask for help, it’s okay to cry, it’s okay to let go of all the bottled up anger and sadness or whatever it may be, just don’t fight that battle alone man. At the end of the day it’s all gonna work out, I hate saying cheesy shit like that, but it’s the truth lmaoo.

You’re two months deep into promoting this project. What’s been the most surprising or unexpectedly fun part of pushing it out into the world?

Man, I think it’s seeing the streams and plays overseas…just a few days ago I had saw there was some plays out in Germany, the UK, Argentina, Amsterdam, Greece, and a few more countries; that’s real sick, I love that; that’s my main goal, to get more song attention overseas- another fun part with promoting not just the album but previously released tracks as well, is seeing what to do next promotion wise, always kinda gotta switch it up; like both my producers ohei8ht & entersilence just give me ideas on how to promote, along with all my brothers, they just got ideas for days, so that’s just real fun, being able to work with all these great minds.

I was surprised when I was reached out to by a music group a couple weeks back, we’re still currently working together right now, it’s just cool to be working with people outside of my circle as well, cuz that just means more doors are being opened; it’s rewarding seeing the music be recognized, it means a lot to me.

Chicago has its own unique musical character. How much has the city fed into the tone of your work or the stories you’re trying to tell?

Chicago just feeds into my work plenty, whether that be living out here or working in the city, it just feeds into the music so much, it just gives ideas left and right. The winters out here I think definitely help shape my sound in a way, just being in the cold and when it snows, when it gets dark at like 4:30, etc etc, the vibe and atmosphere is just different and it just works for the music and story telling.

Almost every idea I get comes from being around the city a lot, for example, the album is called “Cirque du Ghoul / Antwan’s Circus”, in the album I mention talks of this “circus” and what I’m actually talking about is the city…. I won’t go into too much in detail about it, but just working in downtown Chicago and then going out what was almost everyday 24/7, you see some shit, like on “MANIAC / TOUR LIFE 2” I say “creatures in the night, maniacs all around”….. you see and meet some characters, some good, some bad, and some where you kinda just tell yourself “goddamn man”…  it’s just one big ass circus in a way, so that’s why I called it “Antwan’s Circus”, cuz the city was just one big ass show and I felt like I was the ringmaster as well as a performer in it. As I mentioned in the beginning, the city feeds plenty into my work, and I always mention it in one way or another, whether that be talking about LSD (LakeShore Drive), or just name dropping the city.

What are you currently cooking up for your next releases? Any sounds, themes, or ideas that have been pulling you forward lately?

As of right now I’m not working on anything, as I retired from making music….nah I’m just playing lmfaooo- I’m working on a collab track with my close producer and uncle ohei8ht and with an artist by the name of Yvk, the track is really fucking dope, the sound is different from what I normally do, I had to tap in with the west coast sound for this track, but it’s still Antwan authentic I can assure you that.

Besides that collab track, I’m still in the process of thinking on what to do next- I kinda wanna do some house music/dance typa tracks because that’s all i’ve been bumpin right now; I have a track out called “Club Space (Interlude)” and it’s almost like a dance type of track, so I wanna do a a full on house/dance project, even if it’s just like a lil EP, I think that’ll be pretty raw. It’ll be cool to switch up the sound, but it’s all up in the air right now, I wanna tap in with some producers who can help achieve that goal, or fuck it me and the boys are gonna have to get to work on that, but again, it’s all up in the air right now, it’s on my list.

You mentioned wanting people to really know who you are as an artist. What’s something most listeners wouldn’t guess about you unless you spelled it out?

Damn, that’s a good question….I think that when it comes to making a song/project it takes me about like 3 months to get it done properly, something like that; it takes a while because I just want everything to be perfect, so I do HELLLAAAA rewriting until I’m comfortable with the craft- I think some folks think it takes like a week or a few days, nah it takes me a while, but that’s something I’m tryna work on. They don’t know I’m my biggest critic, and again that goes back to wanting everything done perfectly, so that’s why I usually take months on tracks.

Another thing they wouldn’t know is before rapping, I wanted to be a wrestler growing up; that’s why I always try to have wrestler mentions in my songs lmaooo, or even when I post on Instagram, I post wrestling pics as well; and before rapping I wanted to start my own band because I was a big Hollywood Undead fan and that sound was just raw to me, so that was something I wanted to do; I do take inspo from them tho, you might hear it, you might not.

As you look ahead at your upcoming projects, what personal or creative milestones are you hoping to hit next, whether that’s a sound shift, a collab, or something you’ve not spoken about yet?

Honestly I really don’t know to be honest, the way I work is a little unorthodox, I just go with the flow, I try not to really think too hard with what I work on too much, cuz if I go with the flow, everything just comes together real easy, whereas if I’m really putting thought into it, it just takes forever for it all to come together and see the light of day.

Personal milestones, I just want to have as much music out as possible and stop procrastinating so much when it comes to the music, I wanna stop getting too deep into my head when it comes to making and dropping stuff, because I feel that just holds me back a lot. I just want to continue putting my voice out there, I’m not saying im the voice of the voiceless, but if there’s someone out there that can resinate with what im saying, then that’s fucking cool and I wanna be able to continue to be that voice so that person don’t feel alone.

I definitely wanna collaborate more with artist’s, whether that be working more with my brother Vizzy and just dropping single tracks or we drop a EP or lil mixtape, or work more with people outside the GhoulBoyz collective- I’m open for whatever.

Soundwise, I most def wanna continue to just grow and do more than what I normally have out, but as of right now I just wanna continue to do what I’m doing and just make it perfect.

Also down the line is to get this band idea off the ground with bando and taymoney, it’s been in the works, that’s all I can really say on that.

Shoutout GhoulBoyz, love y’all man, love this whole team.

–

Discover antwan_nawtna’s sound on Spotify and connect with him on Instagram and TikTok. 

Interview by Amelia Vandergast

antwan_nawtna spiralled alt trap into surrealism with ‘WordsFromCircusClown / 2 Hearts’

Posted on 12 October 2025

In WordsFromCircusClown / 2 Hearts, the standout single from antwan_nawtna’s latest album Cirque du Ghoul / Antwan’s Circus, despondency bleeds through the reverb as the Chicago-based artist turns dark trap into a macabre, wavy trip through a carnival of ennui and glitch-laced emotion. Drifting beyond the parameters of cloud rap into a realm far rawer and more introspective, antwan_nawtna sets his psyche loose within a hypnotic downtempo lament, letting his voice unravel like a slow-motion confession caught in a whirl of static and whispered trauma.

There’s an aching tenderness to the track’s architecture. The synths, woozy and warped, are held together with brittle percussive threads as the beat crawls forward beneath his spectral delivery. The lyrics feel less written and more extracted; no self-censorship, no coded metaphors, just heart-on-sleeve admissions that flicker and fade like smoke signals from a disintegrating circus tent. It’s a rare kind of emotional transparency, one that doesn’t ask for understanding, only for the listener to sit with the disquiet and feel it in tandem.

For the emo-rap crowd hungry for something more textured, more experimental, and more haunted, this is the direction worth chasing.

WordsFromCircusClown / 2 Hearts is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Apple Music and Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Myra Keyes Threw Indie Pop into the Fire and Let Foam Rise with Retro-Futuristic Fever

Posted on 10 October 2025
https://open.spotify.com/artist/42CEdwQ3nYwVfLRjyMWqwS

Archetypal indie-pop cuts clearly aren’t sharp enough for Myra Keyes, judging by her seminal single, Foam, which takes the arbitrary parameters of pop and casts them into the inferno of her red-hot, authentically rendered aural blueprint.

The time signatures trip the rhythmic pulse into a state of dizzy reverie as they brush you up against the anatomy of the sticky-sweet, synth-driven earworm. Her vocals, glazed with just enough reverb to keep the hypnosis spellbinding, glide through the mix while the production fuses the aesthetics of Billie Eilish with the retrofuturist shimmer of funk-slicked new wave synth pop. It’s an electrified indietronica detour where the hooks keep swinging and the energy refuses to let up.

Chicago-based Keyes may have only just turned twenty, but her CV already reads like someone who has lived a full artistic lifetime. From her early years as a five-year National Piano Guild member, studying under jazz pianist Grant Richards, recording with Decemberist Jenny Conlee, and performing with Shook Twins and Patti King of the Shins, she’s no stranger to high-calibre collaborators.

Now writing, arranging, and producing her own material after teaching herself bass and guitar, she’s gearing up to release her sophomore LP, Signature Move, on October 24. With Joe Mengis, Scott Weddle, and Scott McPherson lending their talents, the record promises a full spectrum of genre-skewering vignettes.

Foam is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Powers of the Monk turned 2nd Century poetry into a meta alt-indie folk vignette with Bread & Circuses

Posted on 4 October 2025

Instead of attempting to un-placate the masses by putting a new spin on 2nd Century Roman poetry, Michigan’s Powers of the Monk used the proverb with Bread & Circuses to shine a cerebral light on the absurdity of modern America through a meta vignette that feels like a sly wink at chaos itself. It’s the kind of concept that makes you wonder why Nobel prizes aren’t handed out to orchestrators of alt indie folk.

Everything about the production leaves you tingling in the same way as ASMR audio; the ethereal vocals become mellifluous spectres within the arrangement, which somehow turns old school honkytonk folk into an avant-garde serenade of semi-lucid scintillation. Even if you met Wayne Coyne in a carnivalesque baroque fever dream and asked him to sing you a song in soprano, it wouldn’t come close to the haunting ingenuity of Powers of the Monk.

Based in the Pontiac-Detroit-Ann Arbor area, Powers of the Monk reformed in 2020 with David S. Monk (vocals, guitars, keyboards) and CasSondra “Pontiac” Powers (vocals, violin, bass guitar, keyboards). John O’Reilly Jr. adds guest drums on this release, which was produced by Powers of the Monk themselves, mixed by Bryan Cook in Los Angeles, and mastered by Brian Callhoun in Nashville.

The song itself circles around an institutionalised patient with multiple personalities who escapes, burns down a circus and watches the escaped lions chase down the clowns and eat them, before seeing babies launched into space in bubbles. Just another day in America.

Bread & Circuses is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Lone Canary Saddled Honesty and Heartbreak in Our Exclusive Interview

Posted on 28 August 2025

With their third album, Dime Store Horses, The Lone Canary cut closer to the bone than ever before. Built on the uneasy rhythm of running hard while questioning whether any ground has been gained, the record holds both the weight of grief and the glimmer of resilience. Across the interview, Jesse and Heather open up about the personal struggles that shaped their songwriting, the catharsis and difficulty of producing the album independently, and the unvarnished truths woven into tracks like Something Real and Kingdom Come. They also reflect on faith, loss, and the power of stripping songs back to their rawest form. For a band used to wearing their hearts on their sleeves, this release feels like the most vulnerable unveiling yet, and the conversation around it proves equally compelling.

Dime Store Horses aches with emotion and reflection. Can you walk us through what compelled you to write this record now, and what the title represents to you both?

The title came up one day when I (Jesse) was chatting with a friend of mine and he mentioned he was in a spot in life that felt like he was riding a dime store horse: putting more and more time and money into things and feeling like he was getting nowhere, just stuck in place galloping away. This hit me hard because it reflected where I feel like we’ve been in the world of music. We’ve been riding hard, giving it everything we’ve got, and somehow it feels like we’re still standing in the same place. That raw frustration is something I know many independent artists go through, and it’s never felt more real.

At the same time, the image stuck with me because it doesn’t just apply to music. A lot of people feel that way in their jobs, relationships, or just life in general—running hard but unsure if they’re actually moving forward. Over the five or so years these songs were written, life’s ups and downs made that metaphor sharper, and it felt like the perfect frame for the record.

Across the record, there’s a strong pull between grief and strength, memory and forward motion. Were there particular events or turning points that shaped the emotional arc of the album?

To be honest, a lot of these songs came from seasons of depression, self-doubt, and questioning in our personal lives. There were stretches where we felt completely stuck, unsure if we were moving forward at all. At the same time, we were growing, sometimes painfully, through those struggles. The grief came from loss, disappointment, and things not turning out the way we hoped, but the strength came from choosing to keep moving, even when it felt impossible.

Some songs came directly from those experiences. Something Real was written at the onset of a heavy depression I went through, and it carries that weight. Kingdom Come wrestles with faith and doubt. Sins of Our Fathers is a moment of reckoning with the need to stop blaming past generations and instead choose growth and change ourselves. Others are more outward stories. 13 has a lightness and catchiness that gave us a needed breath of air, while Wildfire draws from the lives and struggles of people around us.

The emotional arc of the record mirrors that mix: some songs are deeply personal, others more observational, but all of them sit in the tension between grief and strength, and between looking back and moving forward.

This is your third album as The Lone Canary, and arguably your most stripped-back and sincere to date. How did your creative dynamic evolve while writing and recording this one compared to your earlier releases?

I think with this album, we had a harder time getting the words and music out, probably because so many of the songs touched on personal matters that are difficult to cope with. Figuring out how to voice those feelings in a way that felt okay wasn’t easy. In some ways, we just plowed forward and wrote them, and figured out the rest as we went.

This was also the most collaborative Heather and I have been in the writing process. We were both deep in the dirt of lyrics and music together throughout the entire process. The biggest growth, though, came in recording. This is the first album that we, for the most part, fully produced and recorded ourselves. It was a steep learning process—figuring out how to record each track well while still trusting our instincts on the creative and artistic side.

Heather really expanded the sounds throughout this album. Her ability to layer and blend beautiful tones and melodies on the violin added so much depth, and this time she also did more tonal/texture experimenting and “sugar coating” with keyboard and MIDI plugins that tied the songs together in ways we hadn’t done before. On top of that, her ear for layered vocals added even more richness. It really upped the tone quality for us and brought the songs to life. Jon Martinez was a huge help in directing us. Initially, we had signed him on as a producer and recording engineer, but he started pushing us to trust ourselves in the process and take the
wheel when it came to producing. He was still an integral part of the completion of the album and mixing it sound tight, but he encouraged us to run free with creativity—tracking instruments we weren’t used to, just getting it done on our own terms. I don’t think we would’ve gotten that far without that “mother bird push out of the nest” he gave us, in Canary terms.

You wrote, recorded, and produced the album independently while still bringing in collaborators. How did you strike that balance between creative solitude and outside input?

Like I said, Jon really pushed us to figure that balance out. We had several recording sessions early on where Heather and I were expecting someone else to direct us, which quickly became a bit chaotic. Jon realized that we had a strong vision, whether or not we knew it, and he made the choice to pull back from the production side. That gave us the encouragement to trust ourselves in the process.

On our earlier albums, we often had a solid 10+ people we’d constantly be pestering for critiques and ideas. This time, we kept it close to the chest and only shared with a handful of close people. It felt more personal that way. And because we weren’t running everything through outside feedback, the songs stayed rawer and truer to our vision.

The singles “Something Real,” “Kingdom Come,” and “13” all peeled back a different emotional facet ahead of the album’s full release. How did you decide on those tracks to lead the way?

Something Real felt like a given to us. Initially, when we started this album, we talked about it being a fully acoustic record. Like many of our past albums, the songs eventually took a breath of their own and became bigger than the initial plan. Something Real was the one that held tight to the idea of “less is more,” so it felt right to lead with it.

As for Kingdom Come, Heather and I both grew up in the church and still actively run a church we started here in Rockford, Illinois (Grassroots Church). That one felt like a necessary song to write. Growing up, we both experienced different kinds of church hurt and the inability to question or doubt your faith. Many of us are told this world is a mess, so just keep your eyes on where you’re going after you die. Over the last several years, we’ve learned that even though this world has its issues, it also shows glimpses of heaven that we often refuse to
acknowledge. Sometimes heaven is right at our fingertips, even though we’ve been taught to see it as distant and unreachable.

The song 13 was one that popped up quickly and almost wrote itself. It has a catchy, upbeat vibe, which has been unusual for us. It felt like a breath of fresh air for the album, especially as a preview of what was to come. We write a lot of sad songs, and while this one isn’t lyrically the happiest, it carries a push and energy that gives the album a bit of a twist compared to our earlier work. We haven’t spoken about it in depth with audiences yet, but it’s already gotten strong responses live, which reassured us that choosing it as a single was the right move.

Your music has always had a strong sense of place, but this release seems to lean even more into intimate storytelling. Did you approach songwriting differently this time around, either structurally or lyrically?

Lyrically, we started writing down big-picture ideas and tried to storyboard from there. Some came from what we were going through, what my kids were going through, or what people close to us were facing. Our lives aren’t always incredibly exciting, so we often have to pull creativity from the world around us. That approach made this record feel more personal.

Structurally, a lot of the songs don’t have bridges or follow a typical pop format, and that was intentional. We let the songs take us where they wanted to go. Often, we’d sit there convincing ourselves something needed to be added, mostly because we’ve been told songs should be formatted a certain way. We’d rack our brains for weeks and eventually realize the song had already been finished. We realized not every story needs to fit a box, and sometimes a song’s honesty is in what’s missing rather than what’s added. That kind of simplicity made sense for
this record.

With a tour planned for the Midwest and Southeast this autumn, what are you most looking forward to about bringing these new songs to live audiences?

I think being able to tell these stories from the heart and hopefully having people connect with us is always the goal and the excitement of performing. When we first started playing some of these songs live, there were a few we could barely get through without tearing up or flat-out not being able to finish, because they hit so close to home. Now, we’ve reached a place of acceptance, and sharing how we’ve grown through those hard parts feels huge. That’s what I look forward to sharing with the people in the room.

As independent artists, building close connections with your listeners has always been a priority. How are you hoping Dime Store Horses helps deepen that relationship?

I think it comes down to letting people in a little more: into our lives, our thoughts, and who we really are. These days we’re constantly pushed to project perfection on social media, to hide the ugly parts of ourselves. But vulnerability works in the opposite direction. By showing those messy parts, we start to realize we’re all more alike and more human than we thought. That’s really the goal of all of this. Honestly, that’s the goal of life, isn’t it?

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Dime Store Horses will be available to stream and purchase on all major platforms from September 12th, including Bandcamp and Spotify. 

Interview by Amelia Vandergast