Browsing Tag

Queer Artist

‘lowkey’ – Rhys Avery Turns Heartache into a Late-Night Confessional

Rhys Avery

Inch by inch, Rhys Avery is carving out a space where storytelling, vulnerability, and early 00s RnB nostalgia collide. The Fort Lauderdale-born singer-songwriter has been commanding stages from Off-Off Broadway to underground venues, bringing his background in musical theatre into the sonic sphere with a knack for raw emotional expression. After refining his craft through a year-long artist development programme, Avery has found his voice in a seamless fusion of pop, RnB, and hard-hitting lyrical introspection.

With lowkey, he paints candour in masterstrokes, unearthing the pain of secret love and the heartbreak of being someone’s hidden truth. The track pulses with euphoric resilience, but beneath the groove, there’s a gut-wrenching exposition of emotional taboo—of breaking your own heart by loving someone who isn’t ready to take that step out of the closet.

His soulful harmonies spill over polished production, igniting the tension between desire and guilt, all while tethering listeners to a reverb-soaked atmosphere where every progression reflects a flicker of light through the darkness.

lowkey is now available to stream on all major platforms, find your preferred way to listen via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Junebug delivers meditative empowerment in her debut indie-pop single, ‘cut you loose’,

If you’ve been putting off severing toxic ties, the debut melodic indie-pop offering, ‘cut you loose’ from up and coming Cambridge, MA-hailing artist Junebug offers plenty of extra incentives with a stunning melding of easy guitar chords and playful synths.

There’s intrinsic innocence to cut you loose. Usually, tracks in the same vain spin the same archetypal, spiteful, ‘better off without you’ narrative. Yet, cut you loose is meditative in the way it reminds you that you’re worthy of inner peace with the cool choral tones.

Any fans of Kate Nash and Big Thief will appreciate Junebug’s airy yet ardent style which is heavily inspired by Joni Mitchell and Laura Marling, paired with her conversationally narrative lyrics that bring her voice as a queer artist into the conversation.

cut you loose was created in collaboration with instrumentalist Chris Howat, who added more depth to the cathartically connectable single that was written, recorded and mixed by Junebug (AKA Carolyn Fahrner) who has been part of the intrinsic fabric of the Boston music scene prior to her Junebug debut.

With her debut EP, ‘Turncoat’, in the works, which promises to be her most vulnerable material yet while exploring queer experiences and growing pains, Junebug is well worth a spot on your radar.

cut you loose is now available to stream via Spotify.

Connect with Junebug via Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast