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Hivesong Lit the Fuse Between Carnal Chaos and Glam Revivalism in ‘Electric Fever’

Hivesong

Hivesong will leave hard rock fans hot under the collar and everywhere else when Electric Fever drops on June 13th. With a discernible deep reverence to overdriven guitar hooks and salacious vocals that will resonate with anyone who can’t resist IAMX and Highly Suspect, Electric Fever delivers everything it says on the titular tin by paying homage to the glam rock era, tinging it with modernistic dark innovation and augmenting every element until Electric Fever ensures your speakers will be shaking in the aftershock following the outro. If there’s an orgasmic rock playlist on Spotify, Hivesong have earned a spot.

There’s no passive listening here, only full-body surrender to the sonic carnality conjured by the Chattanooga duo who were never designed for background noise. Channelling the swagger of Ziggy, the Sabbath-grade seismic pull, and the studio bite of Royal Blood, Hivesong have clawed rock from its coffin and reminded the faithful how transcendence can feel when it’s shrouded in distortion and lust.

Their shows are rituals. Their guitars, relics. Their sound, a sermon from the altar of righteous noise. And on record, they carry that same sermon with cathedral-shaking force. No part of Electric Fever tries to reinvent the wheel; instead, it straps it to a jet engine and lights the fuse. It’s theatrical without parody, guttural without regression, indulgent without losing control.

Electric Fever is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Adam Foster Used Americana as Ammunition in the Protest Single, ‘Born Into War’

Adam Foster tuned his Americana roots to the human cost of conflict for his May 23rd release, Born Into War. From the first droning chord progression, there’s no doubt he knew the weight of the theme he chose to bear. The lap steel resonance doesn’t just serve as sonic decoration. It mourns alongside the lyricism, becoming just as crucial to the protest as Foster’s voice.

After Charming Lies imagined the melancholy of Cash drifting into the weightless introspection of Dylan, with a little extra homegrown Americana reimagined through an indie folk lens, Born Into War cuts deeper. The Nashville-based songwriter, originally from Albany, New York, has never shied away from pulling at uncomfortable threads. Since his self-titled acoustic debut in 2004, through his full-band evolutions with albums like Dirty City and Late Bloomer, Foster has shown a commitment to confronting what many try their best to ignore.

His rock, blues, folk, and country sensibilities, sharpened by decades of playing nightclubs and festivals across the States, give Born Into War an unmistakably seasoned edge. Foster only gets more daring with each socio-political release. He screams into the void and melodies scream back, carrying the weight of disenfranchisement, disillusionment, and deep longing for peace.

There’s no ambiguity in the message. This is protest music sharpened by experience and sincerity, not softened by poetic obscurity. Foster didn’t write this for comfort. He wrote it because someone had to.

Born Into War is now available to stream on all major platforms; for the full experience, stream the lyric video on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Janessa Turns Emotional Whiplash into Soul-Centred Geometry in the RnB Mosaic ‘Push & Pull’

With Push & Pull, Nashville-born, Liverpool-based artist Janessa takes the conflicting emotional trajectories of love and constructs a funk-wrapped, soul-drenched sonic sugar for the pill of being torn between distance and closeness within a dynamic you know is ebbing away at the colour of your world.

Written in the immediate aftermath of a breakup and conceived in one cathartic sitting with producer Jacob Weinreich and guitarist Josh Phillips, Push & Pull captures the raw clarity that floods in when the emotional fog finally lifts. With Janessa’s timelessly sanctifying harmonies easing you into her lyrical reckoning, the track swells with a cinematic warmth, yet it never sacrifices the jagged truth of the experience.

As the moody textures thicken around her intimate vocal performance, the kaleidoscope of tones brings relief to the tension without dulling its emotional weight. There’s honesty, but also groove. There’s melancholy, but also a lightness that finds its form in the funky polyphonic beats and synths. If you’re in the same languid space Janessa was when she penned the single, dig into Push & Pull and embrace the sanctuary built within it.

Now 23, Janessa has spent over a decade shaping her musical sensibility, first through early performances in Nashville, and now through her continued songwriting evolution at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. Her RnB-laced sound pairs vulnerability with melodic precision, grounding her heartbreak narratives with the unmistakable authenticity of lived experience.

Push & Pull is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Woody Bradshaw Resurrects Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ into a Country-Gospel Communion of Faith

Woody Bradshaw may have taken on one of the most relentlessly reworked songs in modern music, but in his hauntingly orchestrated cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, he found fresh soil to sink new imaginings into. With an accord between Americana-fuelled guitar chords and the softly aching edge of his vocals, Bradshaw channels restraint at first, only to cast it off in favour of an impassioned surge that spills into gospel fervour.

As the progressions deepen, the arcane orchestral arrangement unfolds as a meditation on finding strength in faith, on holding light in the tension between loss and divinity. Bradshaw’s percussive choices hit with boldness, punctuating the track with the force of spiritual reckoning. The country-tinged guitars never get lost in the production—they find nuanced ways to thread themselves through the instrumental landscape, guiding the listener towards the lyrical divinity with quiet conviction.

So much more than a cover, Hallelujah becomes a revived awakening in Bradshaw’s hands. The American singer-songwriter’s path from theatre stages and television screens to the soul-stirring depths of Nashville’s music scene shaped his ability to perform with resonance rather than theatre. After a pivotal encounter with Jimmy Webb and years spent forging his songwriting voice in the Nashville circuit, Bradshaw created a space where performance gives way to purpose.

Now collaborating with producer Stephan Oberhoff, this rendition marks more than a return—it’s a renewal.

Hallelujah is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Trofye Caused A Cinematic Hip-Hop Power Surge With ‘You Already Know Dat’

Trofye landed another seismic blow to the hip-hop scene with ‘You Already Know Dat’, produced by Hawky and brought to life visually by Chieffography in the official video, which dropped on 9th May. From the first pulse, the track launches a hypersonically augmented hit of pure hip-hop fire, bolstered by boom-bap beats and a production so cinematically intense you can almost see the credits rolling on a Hollywood blockbuster as it pummels through your speakers.

This is hip-hop delivered with unflinching conviction; every syllable lands with the velocity of a sledgehammer. Trofye’s lyricism is wired for high voltage – enough to power a grid while he leaves no risk of repetition, driving home his individuality and sharp intent. The delivery never drops below full throttle, and with each verse, Trofye puts himself in prime position to collect both reverence and momentum, with sync deals waiting in the wings for a track so ready-made for the cinematic spotlight.

While his reputation may have started in Franklin, TN with hits like ‘Eat’, ‘Dead or In Jail’, and ‘No Hooks’, ‘You Already Know Dat’ is the statement piece that brings Trofye to new heights, both musically and visually. The production choices make no apologies, giving the single an edge that demands repeat listens and respect across the hip-hop spectrum.

‘You Already Know Dat’ is now available to stream on all major platforms; for the full experience, check it out on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Mikey Wayne’s Lovin’ and Leavin’: A Bonfire Ballad for Every Heart That’s Learned the Hard Way

With a Hollywood panoramic production projecting the intimate echoes of a soul that knows the sting of a temporal romance all too well, Mikey Wayne invited listeners to do more than just dwell on the pain with Lovin’ and Leavin’ he painted a vignette with the emotions derived from the ebb and flow of love which pushes and pulls the heartstrings until they snap.

Lovin’ and Leavin’ isn’t merely a heartbreak anthem—it’s the internal monologue of anyone who’s chosen passion over peace and paid the price. The Alabama-based singer-songwriter, shaped as much by his Southern California beginnings as his Deep South roots, channels that contrast into a ballad steeped in bittersweetness and bound by conviction. His rendered-in-sentimentality vocal lines honey the nostalgic agony as it melodically pirouettes through the track, which lands in the perfect spot in the bitter-sweet equilibrium, especially when the rock solo breaks through the affecting atmosphere, illustrating the intensity of passion with the conviction of a thousand words.

It’s a classic feat of stellar songwriting, with all the hallmarks of the ’70s Americana greats—yet the scars are Wayne’s own. Raised fronting rock bands through high school and college, and now launching from Nashville after a decade of refining his voice, Mikey Wayne has proven that his stories don’t borrow—they bleed. Lovin’ and Leavin’ is a reckoning for anyone who’s felt the full force of head vs. heart, lived to regret it, and would do it all again.

Lovin’ and Leavin’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Latin Pop Luminary Diego Molina Defined Romantic Sincerity in ‘What’s That Light In Your Eyes’

Diego Molina

Diego Molina’s latest single, ‘What’s That Light in Your Eyes’, subversively opens with an intimate glimpse into relationship bliss, almost like overhearing a candid conversation through an accidental pocket dial, setting a refreshingly personal context for the heartfelt fervency of the Latin pop serenade that follows, gently redefining romantic sincerity beyond physical admiration.

Hailing from Nashville, Molina wrote, produced, and mixed the track himself, drawing charismatic sentimentality from early-2000s inspirations such as U2’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind and Enrique Iglesias’ Escape. His approach carries an individuality shaped by his first visit to his Colombian roots, channelling the vibrant rhythms and spirited streets of Bogotá.

Sonically, Molina balances Latin pop traditions with synth-driven, new wave innovation. Angular guitar lines delicately ascend through the arrangement, soaring beyond the quickening heartbeat echoed by rhythmic beats. Retro-futurist synth textures amplify the emotional intensity, enveloping listeners in an atmosphere of ardent nostalgia. Molina’s diaphanous vocals, effortlessly slipping into vibrato, further amplify the authenticity and emotional depth of the love letter to sincerity and intimacy, which illuminates a romantic narrative with sophisticated yet accessible charm.

‘What’s That Light in Your Eyes’ is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

your friend juniper: An Interview on Music, Love, and the Art of Feeling Everything

your friend juniper builds worlds where emotions are raw, love isn’t sugar-coated, and every note carries the weight of something real. With makesmehappy leading the charge for her next album, she’s taking listeners beyond the predictable highs and lows of love songs, exploring the in-between—the messy, unfiltered parts that make relationships human. In this interview, she opens up about crafting music designed to hit like a dopamine rush, the balance between creative freedom and self-promotion, and why Nashville’s storytelling tradition has shaped her lyricism in unexpected ways. From the way she assigns colours to her songs to her belief in slow, meaningful career growth over viral fame, Juniper’s perspective is as thought-provoking as it is refreshing. Read on to step into her world of sound, sonder, and sonic connection.


Juniper, welcome to A&R Factory! With
 makesmehappy kicking off the rollout for your upcoming album, there’s a lot to unpack about your creative vision and the way you approach music as a full-spectrum experience. makesmehappy offers a perspective on love that isn’t just about the highs but also embraces the messier, unpolished parts. What drew you to write a love song that challenges the typical narrative?

I know there are many songs out there that touch on so many aspects of love, but it tends to be in these certain worlds of either gaining it or losing it. There’s this whole middle area of navigating it that’s really the juicy bit. Love, in every kind of relationship, is really challenging, and sometimes it’s pure joy, and in others, it’s really putting aside your desires or expectations for the sake of another person, and it’s all driven by the same thing: love. I wanted a song that took me through that turbulent and wonderful journey of expectations and compromise and deep connection, almost like a simulator. I figured no one is ever alone, so there had to be other music lovers out there searching for that song as well. I think I honestly got too impatient and decided to make it myself.

You’ve described your music and visual content as designed to trigger a dopamine release, almost like an essential vitamin. How do you translate that idea into the way you produce and arrange your songs?

I desperately push for every second of my songs to inspire the listener to feel something. I’m a person with high expectations, and it for sure creeps into my music and content-making process. I had to really discover why I wanted to live this insane lifestyle and make music, and it came down to wanting to affect people in a positive way. Music and art are extremely powerful and I want someone who discovers me to have an experience from the second they go to my profile to the very end of the first song they hear and then have it just continue. I want my music and content to be like a good friend.

It takes a lot of time and effort, but it’s just so worth it. I make all of my own visual content as well as my music, and right now I’m really diving into a new aesthetic of sondering, which is the realization that you’re one of many complex lives. It can make you feel small in the existential sense but also fill you with awe and curiosity. So, welcome to my little world where we wander, ponder and most of all, sonder! 

Since you write, record, and produce everything yourself, what’s your creative process like when you’re shaping a track from the ground up? Do you start with a sonic idea, a lyric, or something visual?

My songs often begin with lyrics or weird voice memos of me humming a melody. Song seeds honestly come to me at the most inconvenient times, like when I’m in the shower or driving or trying to fall asleep. All of a sudden, lyrics will just start flooding into my brain, often with a rhythm. I have to get them down immediately or literally just repeat them until I can. Sometimes, I feel like one of those characters in a movie who has visions and the world stops, and they seem to lose control and have to draw something or write something.

I’ll always finish the song acoustically before I record anything. It starts with the main instrument and a vocal demo and then I’ll produce the song fully and often record the final takes of the vocal last before I start mixing. The ideas come as I go with production. I often hear a rhythmic part or a melody in my head and then figure it out on whichever instrument I’m hearing and layer things in until I can’t hear any more parts. That’s when I’ll go in and really strip back and take things away until it’s only what the song really needs. Sometimes, a simple production is the most effective. You have to be willing to undo and go back and redo and all these really annoying things but refusing to compromise with your songs has to be the main goal.

Your upcoming album is your second full-length project. How does it build on or contrast with your debut in terms of themes, production, or the emotional weight behind it?

My first album was really an attempt for me to just get all these songs I had in my bank out. It varies so much from song to song, and I truly love it and think all of those songs deserved to be released, but it’s not a cohesive album by any means. This second full project was more intentionally put together as an album, and there is definitely a strong cohesiveness throughout it lyrically and sonically.

Haley Heynderickx was my big inspiration for the sound of the album. I love the intimacy and saturation of her music. For the lyrical content, the moral of the story is really to sonder and realize how crazy this world is that we live in and that we only get one weird little life on it. I think as a species, we focus on all the wrong things and separate ourselves from each other in all these ways that don’t matter. Spend less time thinking about yourself and way more time thinking about the world and the strange and beautiful people in it. It’s medicine for the brain and the heart without the long list of horrible side effects while a lady twirls on a beach.

What’s been the most effective way for you to reach listeners who truly connect with your music?

Slowly. I know it sounds like I am being cheeky but slow and steady wins the race. I want an authentic, grassroots fan base grown through actual engagement, and that just simply takes longer. I could really spend most of my time trying to go viral and rise to fame quickly, but it’s not a great long-term investment and I’m a musician, not an influencer. I’ve had friends go viral multiple times and it’s great for the views on that one video and the streams on that one song but I haven’t seen it curate a true fanbase who stays with you. I’d way rather spend my time making really good songs, putting together a great live set, making authentic content that’s easy because I actually enjoy making it and then travel the world and share my music in person with people.

There’s a strong visual element to everything you do, from colours to the way you present each track. What role do visuals play in shaping the way your audience experiences your music?

I think music and visual art are soulmates. They can exist without each other and still be extremely wonderful but they’re even better together. Color is a really strange thing because it doesn’t really exist, at least without light. We really only perceive color based on the wavelength and the object it’s bouncing off of and that’s just insane and amazing. I always wanted color to be a part of my brand because it’s a universal language. Every song of mine is attached to a color that not only visually represents the song but scientifically does as well. Our brains react to different colors in different ways and I want to utilize that to enhance my songs. It’s kind of my way of adding frosting to a piece of music.

Nashville is known for its rich musical landscape, but your style stands apart from the city’s more traditional sound. How has being in that environment influenced your work, if at all? 

Nashville is a great place to be if you want to really grow as a lyricist and songwriter. Country music is about storytelling above anything else. It stems from the structure of classic 12-bar blues where every song essentially has the same movements but it’s the story and the way the singer tells that story over those movements that makes it unique. There’s a depth of forethought in country lyrics that I love where a line at the end will finally tie together a phrase or idea from an earlier part of the song. It’s like the whole song is connected in these really clever ways, like a novel or a movie rather than just a good hook and who really cares what we’re saying in the song you know? Being in this environment has absolutely helped me grow as a musician. It’s also really about talent in Nashville instead of clout or connections and that’s why Nashville is quality over quantity. Country music is definitely what makes up a majority of the landscape here but so many artists these days are blending genres, as they should, so it doesn’t feel so important that I am not a country singer.

Independent artists often have to balance the creative side of music with the reality of promoting it. How do you manage both without losing the heart of what you want to create?

Oh my gosh, I lose heart all the time! Musicians have to be so disciplined and work so hard and put so much of their own money into their careers without getting anything in return for a long time. I honestly don’t think anyone from any other field of study would accept the terms in their careers that artists are pretty much forced to accept. The music industry is broken…really broken so we have to support each other and really go back to basics. It really feels like every system is broken because nowadays pretty much everyone is working two or more full-time jobs and can’t afford basic essentials.

I’m still finding the balance and I think I always will be. I don’t think anyone ever fully gets it or finds the one true method because it’s so dependent on so many things. I had to find where the deficit was in my own process and make peace with the fact that I had to save up money to invest in marketing for my releases, tours and live shows. I’m still hoping to get a manager or a booking agent this year because it’s really overwhelming a lot of the time but I’m a big believer that nothing good comes easy and it proves to me every day how much this is my passion and my purpose because no matter how hopeless it seems, I just keep doing it.

You clearly believe in this album and its potential to connect with listeners. If people take away one thing from this record, what do you hope it is?

Sonder. Think about others way more than you think about yourself. Be beautiful in the ways that really matter. Forgive people as quickly as you can and for the love of Mary fight for a life where you’re spending most of your time doing something you love. If you let it, life will break your heart. Love yourself so much that you’re willing to sacrifice to be healthier and a better person. It’s not about indulging every feeling or thought like truly allow yourself to grow and change.

Find your preferred way to listen to your friend juniper’s latest single and connect with the artist via this link.

 

Interview by Amelia Vandergast

All James’ ‘Falling Back’ Lifts the Weight of the World with Power-Pop Panache

With his latest single, All James filtered Americana, power pop, chamber pop, and indie folk through a lens of authenticity, refusing to fit into any pigeonhole framework. The soaring orchestral strings and lush 90s nostalgia in ‘Falling Back’ blur into an arrangement that feels almost too big for Broadway, yet it never loses its intimacy.

Written between the lines of Falling Back is the efficacious reminder that no one is as alone as they believe they are—there’s always someone to fall back on. The clarity in the crescendos affirms that sentiment, carrying listeners through the emotional turbulence of feeling lost and the sanctuary of being caught.

Every note in Falling Back feels intentional, designed to be epic and emotional without losing sight of its raw honesty. If it has been a while since a singer-songwriter has driven you to the brink of tears, hit play and remind yourself of how sound is capable of making your soul feel whole.

Falling Back is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

your friend juniper’s ‘makesmehappy’ Builds a Bridge Between Fantasy and Fearless Living

What begins as a Disney-esque ballad in makesmehappy doesn’t stay in the realm of romantic fantasy for long. your friend juniper—Nashville-based singer-songwriter, producer, and videographer—obscures the whimsical with artful neo-folk instrumentation, her textured rhythm section syncopating beneath vocal lines that don’t just soar but ascend into something divine.

Seamlessly shifting from delicate reverie to something far more profound, this track solidifies her as much more than a vocal powerhouse; she’s an artist who doesn’t just perform but pours her soul into sound.

With a background spanning musical theatre, classical, and contemporary music—honed at Berklee College of Music—your friend juniper wields her vocal versatility with intent, never relying on sheer power alone. makesmehappy resonates with the same evocative energy as her inspirations Hayley Heynderickx, Madison Cunningham, and Regina Spektor, yet the emotional depth and spiritual warmth in her sound make this track unmistakably hers.

If any single can convince you to chase your happiness without hesitation, it’s makesmehappy, which only becomes more of a revelation with each repeat listen.

The first single from her upcoming full-length album is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast