Browsing Tag

Mental Health

Move Forward: NYC alt-rockers Wake the Sun don’t let the past define them on ‘Deep Blues Skies’

Inspired by their heroes from the legendary band’s Foo Fighters and Rival Sons, Wake the Sun put on their sunglasses and stomp all the self-doubt out of your soul with ‘Deep Blues Skies‘.

Wake the Sun is a New York, USA-based indie 4-piece alt-rock band that sends us a real banger here that seems to illuminate all senses and take you to a better place than before.

With the recent pandemic, mental health has been at the forefront of many people’s minds. Luckily, more and more people are being made aware of its effects every single day and having a frank conversation. This song seeks to shed light on that ever-growing problem. The song depicts the frustrations of getting caught up with your own thoughts and how they can harken back to tribulations of years past. It conveys how past adversity can color our perceptions of today.” ~ Lead singer and lyricist, Dillon Mealy

Sometimes in life, you hear a band so underrated it makes you positively inspired to tell everyone you know with good music taste about them. Wake the Sun is that band. What they achieve on ‘Deep Blues Skies‘ is quite magnificent as they bust a deep hole into anything that has been suffocating you lately, with an excellently delivered track that will leave you speakers blushing.

Deep Blues Skies‘ from New York-based indie 4-piece alt-rock act Wake the Sun, is a thunderous track from a really exciting band who understand that the future can be bright if you lose the baggage at the airport and fly free again. There is a tempo projected here that is quite outstanding and very Foo-like, as they press play and let their music do the talking.

Life is all about looking for sunnier climates, so that you may bask in the light and forget anything that has held you back in achieving anything you want.

Check out this top new single on Spotify and see more via the IG music page.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

HayeWire promises ‘Better Days’ in their heart-wrenching debut single.

Up and coming Mississippi artist, HayeWire, has released his optimism-inspiring debut single, Better Days. The debut infuses hip hop, pop and RnB into the minor key melodies that are striking enough to leave you arrested in the introspection that was laid out as a means of connection.

The single starts with a minimalist melody and harmonic pop vocals before the rap bars and beats fully kick in, which brings plenty of gravity of track that caught us utterly broadsided with its ability to convey so succinctly the nature of depression.

HayeWire’s sole focus is dealing with trauma and depression in his lyrics to remind his listeners that they aren’t alone in their individual struggle. Notably, he hit the mark with Better Days which unravels as a cocktail of multi-faceted emotion that reflects the tight grip of depression and how sweet it is to break free from it.

Better Days is easily one of the most promising debuts we have heard during 2021. We can’t wait to hear how HayeWire follows on from this compassionate hard-hitter.

HayeWire’s debut single, Better Days, is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dark Soul: London’s Rhea knows that this evil shadow has certainly sinned on ‘Blood on your hands’

https://soundcloud.com/whatkindofwonderland/blood-on-your-hands?ref=clipboard&p=i&c=1&si=29FF4731F1E04390AD58B3724A0BE1C6&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

On one of the most beautifully frightful tracks you will ever hear in your whole existence, Rhea discreetly cuts through our inquisitive consciousness with a sharp-edged experience that might remind you of early Lana Del Ray with ‘Blood on your hands‘.

Rhea is a 24-year-old indie-pop singer-songwriter and artist who appears to make music from the most profound part of her highly creative soul as he uses this outlet to help stay sane in this puzzling world.

My goal is to make music and art others can relate to, I also want to fuse visual are and music together.” ~ Rhea

Rhea dispenses us into this movie-like picture with vivid detail and harmonises with such a lovably raw style, as each expression is propelled with such perspicacity and emotion. It’s like she has truly seen this story with her own eyes and directs us, into a release that will have your whole soul shaking in utter disbelief at this underground gem.

Blood on your hands‘ from the terrifically talented and highly-promising London, UK-based indie-pop artist Rhea, is such a heart-stopping song that you might need a cold glass of water afterwards. This is an authentic singer-songwriter with so much potential at her very fingertips, who is such a vividly descriptive storyteller beyond compare. There is a knife-edge of anticipation here as you don’t quite know what is going to happen next – which has you so fascinated like you are watching a future great at work – while she is still fairly unknown and finding the sound that she wants to propel to the world.

Hear this deep track on her Soundcloud and see more of her activities on IG.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Vincent Tesoro extends salvation in his alt-hip hop track, Fix Me.

Vincent Tesoro has released his indie emo alt-hip hop debut album, Shooting Stars & Broken Halos, which deserves to be as revered as Lil Peep’s legacy of a back catalogue for the way it effortlessly obliterates genre by putting cutting emotion to the forefront. Outliers or anyone that has been down beaten and found the light from the gutter will be sucked in by the standout single, Fix Me.

Fix Me is a hooky call for salvation that comes with sniping Blink 182-style pop-punk tendencies, contemporary hip hop beats and vocals that compel you to verse the lyrics before you have even memorised them.

Along with his ability to bring resonant panache to hip hop, Vincent Tesoro is also a mental health advocate and a certified substance abuse counsellor after years of recovery between his overdose in 2014. It all comes together in his compassionate wisdom-packed tracks that we can’t wait to hear more of.

Fix Me is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Wade Wilson brings the adrenaline to jazz hip hop with Be There.

The up and coming old-school-inclined hip hop artist and mental health activist, Wade Wilson, has dropped his highly anticipated debut album, Chop House, featuring the standout single, Be There. The Brooklyn-based artist’s hyper hip hop style practically brings a brand-new meaning to the term high vibe hip hop.

Right from the intro, you’re thrown into an electrifying jazzy hip hop ensemble that creates a viscerally adrenalizing platform for his high fire rap bars. While the intense BPM won’t be for everyone, anyone looking to be galvanised won’t want to miss out on this monolithic hit.

Wade Wilson’s debut album, Chop House, is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

XANDE breaks barriers with his mental health alt-pop stormer, DOWNFALL.

Alt-pop singer-songwriter and producer, XANDE, is set to release his rawest single to date with DOWNFALL, which doesn’t just open up the MH conversation; it drops an atomic bomb to break down barriers and advocate for mental health awareness.

By mixing with contemporary pop elements with trap textures and alt-rock stylings, DOWNFALL could easily be  universally adored. If you thought that Wrecking Ball was evocative, brace yourselves for the emotional firestorm that blazes throughout this massive melodic hit.

The Portugal-born artist penned the single to reflect the emotions that transpired through being a caregiver for his father, who suffered from schizophrenia and PTSD. It finds a nuanced way of portraying the very real truth that the symptoms of someone’s mental health conditions can cause another’s trauma.

As someone that has also had to constantly creep around depression and anxiety during childhood, I couldn’t help finding myself in the lyrics; that hollowing feeling of knowing that your emotions will always be secondary and the people that should have your back just let you fall or push you even further. It’s a stunning single, in every conceivable way. We can’t wait to hear more.

The official video to DOWNFALL will premiere on October 8th; you can check it out for yourselves on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Losing Sight: Frannie B searches for the all-important meaning again with ‘Downfall’

After understandably letting the addictive forces of the internet control her for too long like so many, Frannie B emerges from the other side with a harrowing story that should serve as a wake-up call for us all on ‘Downfall‘.

Frannie Brown aka Frannie B, is an indie dark-pop/dance and RnB-fused PJ’s-loving singer-songwriter who truly sings from the heart. She makes that inspiring blend of memorable melodies that is real and from life experiences, in this controlled world which can suffocate you forever if you aren’t too careful.

This song was written during lockdown last year. It was recorded in Frannie’s bedroom and produced over Skype with Danish producer Mört.” ~ Frannie B

Her lusciously projected vocals are excellently laced with so much pureness you can’t help but support her message, with a likable beat that gets your moving graciously and thinking deeply about how much you consume online. The lyrics are thoughtfully written and with such insightful meaning – each sentence leads you deeper inside her mind – to see how she feels about this vitally important topic, that seem to have been unintentionally forgotten.

To me this song is about any form of addiction, including how damaging the internet is and how much young people (myself included) allow it to control almost every aspect of our lives. Addiction is an area that is attached to a lot of negative stigma but has really personally affected me so I hope this can help anyone struggling with it to feel less alone.”- Frannie B

Downfall‘ from the wonderful indie dance-pop artist Frannie B, is that stark reminder that one more swipe can really have you lose your true path, as you turn into an anxious zombie and worry about things you really shouldn’t. As social media and the internet has so many losing their soul just for some meaningless likes and follows, this is a striking message that needs to be heard far and wide. With so many impressionable eyes locked on their screens, there must be a better way to live and avoid getting sucked into a world that unfairly compares everyone.

Sung with a true care and love from someone who has lived the emotional journey, this is a catchy track to truly think about what content you absorb. Surely living life happily is about being outside in nature, with genuine human and animals, far away from our addictive phones.

Hear this fantastic new single on Spotify and see more news via her IG.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Abi Mia’s orchestral ballad, Shadow, resounds with empowerment

Abi Mia

Abi Mia’s latest piano pop ballad, Shadow, is easily one of the timeliest singles that we’ve heard this year; for the lyrics, she looked deep into the collective misery and burnout surrounding her, sonically, she constructed a compelling case for self-care that is impossible to ignore.

Our self-destructive need to work ourselves to exhaustion determination to be fine with everything our chaotic world throws at us is something that has been eating away at us since long before the lockdowns, but right now is the perfect time for a conversation. Abi Mia leads that dialogue with her soul-baring single that will quickly convince you to strip away your façade and allow the single to resonate with you on a deeper level.

The only question that the radio-ready orchestral ballad leaves you with is why isn’t she already a multi-platinum artist? It is only a matter of time before Abi Mia is scouted for her distinct vocals that only allow fleeting reminiscence while boasting the same robust propensities as Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and Adele.

Shadow is due for release on September 17th. Check it out for yourselves on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Mani Knox delivers high vibe ennui in his standout single, ‘F.M.L’

NYC born and raised alt-hip hop pioneer, Mani Knox, has dropped his sonically high-vibe EP, Demons Dilemma, featuring the standout single, F.M.L; if you are going to curse existence to any track, make it this one.

Since his 2019 debut album, Love is War, Knox has been a mental health advocate through his music. Not in the superficial, good vibes only, way more in the I’ve seen the dark and, now I’m going to show you the light way, that you can’t help getting absorbed by.

F.M.L reels you in lyrical hook, bassline and sinker. His productions are just as massive and robust as you will find from artists such as Labrinth, The Weeknd, and Tinie Tempah but it’s the intimacy of the single that uses a female protagonist to allude to the depths ennui can take you to that wins you over with F.M.L.

F.M.L is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Those Scary Days: Dublin artist Guilherme shows us inside his mind on ‘Demon’ (Part II: Panic)

Taken off his solo five-track EP effort called ‘Demon‘, in which he explores various mental health topics that he has battled with in the past, Guilherme is at his honest best on ‘Demon’ (Part II: Panic).

Guilherme is a Brazilian-born indie singer-songwriter and the lead vocalist of the rock band Mary Bleeds, who is now based in peaceful Ireland. He makes a sterling blend of striking stories which has you thinking much deeper than before, about various issues that can take you down an undesirable road at times.

Demon” is a collection of pieces for voice and piano about Guilherme’s experiences with depression, paranoia, PTSD and traits of bipolar disorder. A meditation on the thoughts and feelings of someone who‘s going through a period of hopelessness and confusion.” ~ Guilherme

With a soul stirring voice that has you totally wrapped into the experience, you feel like this is a man giving his heart and soul to us on each second. Growing up has been tough to say the least and this is his therapy, his voice shows you this dark tunnels of doubt, as the lyrics tell you what its been like all those years.

Being able to perform his music has certainly helped, as he pieces everything together – so that he may make his life puzzle to work out where he needs to go – in order to find that true contentment treasure.

Initially insecure about his abilities, Guilherme kept his music to himself until his early 20’s when he found the courage to share it with other musicians. Although all his early work was in his native Portuguese, as a writer he loved the cadence and phonetical textures of English. He moved to Ireland to immerse himself in the language and never looked back.” ~ Guilherme

Demon(Part II: Panic) from the Ireland-based indie singer-songwriter Guilherme, is a haunting single with visuals that may shock many. He has bravely let us into his mind to show you the scars and torture he has felt whilst growing up. Luckily through his art, he is able to express himself and not feel judged so that he may set himself free, to be happy and feel peace inside his burning heart.

Helping others deal with their own issues is his goal, and this has been achieved on a grand scale that must be applauded for its ultimate courageousness.

Stream this new emotional music video on YouTube and see more via his IG music channel.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen