Julien Baker

Torres

All Things Go Music Festival

Noah Kahan

GRAMMY® nominated Vermont singer & songwriter Noah Kahan has exploded from his New England roots into the global mainstream. At the core of his music are vulnerable lyrics and an unfiltered yet relatable honesty, as the critically acclaimed artist pens songs straight from the heart and cracks jokes with his signature, self-deprecating sense of humor. Throughout his career, Kahan has become globally renowned for his singular mix of Folk, Americana, and Rock, landing more than seven billion streams and a 4x Platinum Certification for his hit single “Stick Season.” His widely adored Double Platinum-Certified album Stick Season and its breakthrough single are inspired by his hometown of Strafford, Vermont and earliest musical inspirations and songwriting heroes—from Paul Simon to Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)—conveying a vivid representation of what he loves, fears, and struggles with most passionately. He followed up the album’s massive global success with his sold-out “Stick Season Tour” and two extended versions of the record—Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever) and Stick Season (Forever), which both surpassed sales of the original and featured new singles “Dial Drunk” and “Forever,” as well as collaborations with the likes of Post Malone, Kacey Musgraves, Brandi Carlile, Hozier, Gregory Alan Isakov, Gracie Abrams, Sam Fender, and Lizzy McAlpine. Kahan’s latest “We’ll All Be Here Forever World Tour” saw him performing in sold-out stadiums and arenas around the globe, including two sold-out nights at Boston’s iconic Fenway Park. The shows were livestreamed to benefit his mental health initiative The Busyhead Project, which has raised over $2.5 million dollars to date to expand access to mental healthcare and fight the stigma around mental health. His live album, Live From Fenway Park, was released following the career-defining shows as the final installment of the Stick Season chapter.

DOECHII

Kesha

Kesha is an undeniable pop icon with 10 top 10 singles, more than 3B worldwide streams, two #1 albums, four #1 songs on top 40 radio and nearly 40M followers across social media. The 2x GRAMMY® Award-nominated superstar attracts a diverse, passionate and socially-engaged global audience who believe in the messages behind her music while critics also have unanimously sung her praises. Kesha’s ventures outside of music include a top-rated TV program, an award-winning film, a book, a cruise and a cosmetics line, all of which spotlight an artist whose passion, talent and charm has earned her legions of fans. Additionally, Kesha has been a staunch advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community and animal welfare through various organizations since the start of her career. 2023’s Gag Order, which marked Kesha’s first new album in over three years, was met by worldwide critical applause and later named “Album of the Year” by The Arts Desk while also placing in the upper echelons of year-end charts from Rolling Stone, PopMatters, The Independent, Slant, and The Sunday Times.

2024 was among undoubtedly among the most momentous years of Kesha’s historic career, with highlights including her featured role on the remix of Charli XCX’s “Spring Breakers” (found on the acclaimed Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat), starring on the cover of GLAMOUR Germany, and being honored as “Music Icon” at GLAMOUR Germany’s 2024 Women of the Year Awards. Kesha – who kicked off the year teaching “The Alchemy of Pop“ as Artist in Residence at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA, followed by a major Ted Talk at Vancouver, BC’s TED2024 conference – further delighted fans with show-stopping festival performances at West Hollywood, CA’s OUTLOUD Music Festival At WeHo Pride, Philadelphia, PA’ Wawa Welcome America Festival in Philadelphia, PA, Chicago, IL’s Lollapalooza and Mexico City, MX’s Festival HERA HSBC, as well as such surprises as a live performance to over 5,000 ecstatic fans at Brooklyn, NY’s sold-out Planet Pride 2024 and a special guest appearance alongside Reneé Rapp at Indio, CA’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival that saw the two stars performing Kesha’s 8x RIAA Platinum-certified, worldwide #1 classic hit, “Tik Tok,” complete with raised middle fingers and an updated lyrical shout to “F-ck P Diddy.” “This I think is the hottest person on the Earth,” Rapp said while introducing her surprise guest. “Everybody put your f-cking hands together for Kesha.” Her incredible 2024 was wrapped up by teaming with iHeartRadio for rapturously received holiday performances at Kiss 108’s Jingle Ball Presented By Capital One at Boston, MA’s TD Garden and Hot 99.5’s Jingle Ball Presented By Capital One at Washington, DC’s Capital One Arena.

Lucy Dacus

Three-time GRAMMY® award winner Lucy Dacus is a musician, performer, storyteller, and widely regarded as “one of the best songwriters of her generation” (Rolling Stone). She has released three full-length albums under her name: 2016’s No Burden, 2018’s Historian, and 2021’s Home Video. This year she’s back with her fourth studio album Forever Is A Feeling after a career-defining year with boygenius, her band with Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker. boygenius’ the record landed #1 on the UK, Irish and Dutch album charts, #1 on Billboard’s Vinyl Album chart, and #4 on Billboard 200 and was named a top 10 album of 2023 by Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Billboard, Variety, and many more. Dacus has performed on Saturday Night Live, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and CBS This Morning. 2025’s Forever Is A Feeling will be released via Geffen/Interscope on 3/28.

Clairo

American indie luminary Clairo has spearheaded new pop conventions and upended them all the same. Her soft rock intimations, interwoven with tendrils of ‘70s soul and lush R&B, have spellbound listeners of all ages, and landed her on the stages of Coachella, the Newport Folk Festival and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Born Claire Cottrill in Atlanta, GA, the artist began self-recording songs and music videos at the age of 13, which amassed a huge fanbase on YouTube. Released in 2017, her lo-fi pop confessional “Pretty Girl” went viral, earning her a joint record deal with Fader Label. Since then, her albums Immunity (2019) and Sling (2021) have traversed the Billboard charts and garnered critical acclaim from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, the New York Times and more. For each of her full-length projects Clairo collaborated on production with legendary names like Vampire Weekend artist Rostam Batmanglij (Immunity), Jack Antonoff (Sling), and now partners with Leon Michels for her new era. Her soul-baring third studio album, Charm, is out now.

The Marías

The Marías are the Grammy-nominated psychedelic-soul lovechild of Puerto Rican-bred,
Atlanta-raised María Zardoya and Los Angeles native, Josh Conway. The two are joined by their
closest friends, Jesse Perlman on guitar and Edward James on keys. Their undeniably intuitive
musical chemistry can be heard in the band’s smooth rendezvous of jazz percussion, hypnotic
guitar riffs, smoke-velvet vocals and nostalgic horn solos. There’s something undeniably
sensual in their dreamlike fusion of jazz, psychedelia, funk and lounge. Since the release of
their debut album, Cinema, The Marías have earned the reputation behind their impressive
upward trajectory, including two Grammy nominations, a Billboard chart-topper and
collaborations with some of the biggest names in Latin music, including Bad Bunny and Tainy.

Now comes the next phase of their journey, the release of their sophomore album: Submarine.
Stepping back into the psychedelic indie rock roots that defined their breakout EP, Superclean,
Submarine delivers on a feeling of nostalgia, a sense that you’ve been here before but the
geography has evolved. Lead single from the project, “Run Your Mouth,” introduces fans and audiences alike to this new immersive world, garnering over one million streams in its first week of release. The cinematic swells of their debut record have been traded for a sonically matured return to form for the album that Josh calls the “bookend to their trilogy,” María’s trance-inducing vocals transporting you to a place of solitude and exploration.

In the live show, The Marías are joined by Gabe Steiner on trumpet and Doron Zounes on bass.
The detail that has defined their cinematic style off-stage is brought to life during their live
performance as the group delivers striking visuals that beautifully compliment their dreamlike
songs, creating an indisputably unique and seemingly transportive experience.

Djo

Djo – the musical project of actor / producer / songwriter Joe Keery known for his work in blockbuster projects as Stranger Things and Fargo – announces his highly anticipated new album The Crux. The follow-up to Djo’s 2022 album DECIDE, which featured the blockbuster hit “End of Beginning,” The Crux will be released on April 4th on AWAL. Djo has also announced a major 2025 global tour. The Djo – Back On You Tour will feature Post Animal as support on all North American, UK and EU tour dates.

The Crux was co-produced by Keery and his long-time collaborator Adam Thein. It’s an album of impeccable craftsmanship. Unlike Keery’s previous albums – bedroom recordings centered around synths – The Crux spotlights lush guitars and instrumentation reminiscent of late 60’s and 70’s pop. It’s an album full of loss and yearning, but also one full of wit and gratitude. The album was written all over the world in a particularly fertile period for Keery – where he was grappling with the transience of his other job, being untethered and away from his friends and family. But to make the album he settled into the legendary Electric Lady Studios in his adopted home of New York City. The Crux not only showcases his ambitious scope, but also his skills as a deft multi-instrumentalist and songwriter (all songs were written by Keery or in collaboration with Adam Thein).

The first single “Basic Being Basic,” with Oberheim OB-X8 synths and falsetto refrain, has its final verses shrewdly skewer the (often online) tropes of modern day posturing. “It’s kind of a shot fired to anyone who’s trying to be of the moment,” says Keery. Listen to the song HERE.

The Last Dinner Party

Faye Webster

Lola Young

I’m Lola Young, a South London girl with a big mouth and an even bigger love for making music. At 23, I’ve been lucky enough to create songs that speak to people on a global scale, blending the chaos of heartbreak, self-discovery, and everything in between into sounds that feel real and unapologetically me.

My official debut album, This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway, is all about raw emotion—love, rage, humor, and finding myself. It’s not just pop music; it’s a mix of everything I’ve ever loved, from hip-hop and indie to art-pop and grunge. Working with incredible producers like Jared Solomon (Solomonophonic), Conor Dickinson, and even SZA, I spent six months crafting these songs, pouring my life into every lyric. Tracks like “Don’t Hate Me” and “Conceited” have gone viral, connecting with people in ways I couldn’t have imagined.

I started out young, writing songs at 11 and performing in open mic nights around London. The Brit School gave me some grounding, but it’s the years of gigging in pubs and finding my sound that really shaped me. Since signing to Island at 18, I’ve released EPs, gone viral on TikTok (shoutout to my best mate Lily West for filming those DIY vids), and gained a fan base that includes Madonna—still can’t believe that one!

My music is rooted in real life: messy relationships, mental health struggles, the highs and lows of being young and figuring it all out. I grew up listening to legends like Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac, and Prince, but I’ve always found my own way. I think that’s why my songs resonate—they’re brutally honest, sometimes funny, and always true to me.

With a sold-out U.S. tour and This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway finally out there, I’m ready for whatever comes next. Fame is scary, sure, but I just want people to relate to what I’m saying. If my songs make someone feel a little less alone, then I know I’m doing something right.

Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory

From the off, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is sonically different from Van Etten’s previous work. Writing and recording in total collaboration with her band for the first time, Van Etten finds the freedom that comes by letting go. The result of that liberation is an exhilarating new dimension of sound and songwriting. The themes are timeless, classic Sharon – life and living, love and being loved – but the sounds are new, wholly realized and sharp as glass.
Reflecting on this new artistic frame of mind, Van Etten muses, “Sometimes it’s exciting, sometimes it’s scary, sometimes you feel stuck. It’s like every day feels a little different – just being at peace with whatever you’re feeling and whoever you are and how you relate to people in that moment. If I can just keep a sense of openness while knowing that my feelings change every day, that is all I can do right now. That and try to be the best person I can be while letting other people be who they are and not taking it personally and just being. I’m not there, but I’m trying to be there every day.”
Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is a quantum leap in that direction.
– Lol Tolhurst

Wallows

ROLE MODEL

Lucius

The Backseat Lovers

The Backseat Lovers are an indie rock band from Salt Lake City, Utah consisting of Joshua Harmon, Jonas Swanson, KJ Ward, & Juice Welch. Since their formation in 2018, the band has amassed over 800 million combined global streams and sold over 200,000 tickets. Their 2023 World Tour found them playing their largest venues to date across North America, the UK, EU and Australia. The band will be bringing new music to their electric live shows as well as fan favorites off of their sophomore album Waiting to Spill which is the follow-up to the group’s acclaimed 2019 full-length debut, When We Were Friends, featuring the top 20 Alternative hit “Kilby Girl.”

Marina

Hippo Campus

Hippo Campus were sitting in the green room of a sold-out amphitheater show at the start of the Summer of 2023 when they realized they had a major problem. Their fourth LP simply wasn’t good enough. Singer Jake Luppen had been listening to the band’s work as they rolled around the country, trying to tease out how much work remained. All of it, he soon decided. The soul wasn’t there, obfuscated by the need to sound sophisticated and the overwhelming ambition to make the best Hippo Campus LP ever, a deeper and more profound record that reflected how their lives were changing. They’d committed to that vow with longtime producer and collaborator Caleb Wright a little more than a year earlier, soon after a party where they celebrated the release of LP3. That very night, the call came that a longtime friend had unexpectedly died. They started this band as kids and enjoyed quick momentum, their thrill-a minute live shows and charismatically experimental pop albums creating almost-instant, avid attention. But this was Hippo Campus’ first close brush with death; as adulthood encroached, the actual call of mortality reminded them of the stakes of art, friendship, and life. So they committed to doing something major, even if it meant taking five years to do it. They took the task seriously, too: getting sober for an entirely improvisational session at North Carolina’s Drop of Sun months later, regularly attending therapy as a full band, writing more than 100 songs in only a year. That was all well and good, until Luppen and, really, all of Hippo Campus decided they didn’t actually like what they were making. Life and work had been dark in their orbit for a second — death and dejection, addiction and anxiety. This uneasy epiphany wasn’t helping. So that night, in the dressing room, they called an audible. They were going to start over. Three months later, the four-member core of Hippo Campus rendezvoused with Wright and producer Brad Cook at Sonic Ranch, a playground-like studio complex on the Texas border. They gave themselves 10 days to cut the tracks they liked best, to make something to which they could commit at last. And Cook, in turn, gave them an edict of no second guessing or listening back, only forward momentum. Less than two weeks later, they emerged with what they’d given themselves half a decade to make — Flood, or the best album Hippo Campus has ever made. You can immediately hear as much in a pair of wondrous songs toward the end, when the love-lost-and-found sing-along “Forget It” fades into the bittersweet and beautiful ache of “Closer,” a gem about trying and maybe failing to surrender your trust to someone else. This is a band that has learned to grow up by learning to let go. When Hippo Campus finally stopped trying to force the issue of making a masterpiece, they tapped intersecting veins of vulnerability and urgency, walking away with 13 tracks that reckon with their uncanny lives through at least that many totally absorbing hooks. During the last several years, Hippo Campus has had to navigate the tougher wages of success. They are, of course, grateful that a pop band they named on the lark of some psychology lesson blew up, but it certainly eliminated the segue from adolescence to adulthood that most of us enjoy in relative privacy. How could they survive inside and alongside this thing they had created and had outgrown them? And what’s more, how could they endure the vagaries of the music industry, so that they didn’t let a disappointing tour or disspiriting release demoralize them? Or, to ask the cumulative question, how do four people connected so intimately for so long grow as individuals while preserving the bond that makes what they do so special? Or is that actually too much to ask? For a minute there, the answer seemed possibly like yes. But soon after that improvisational session, the band returned to its own Minneapolis studio and dug in. They stumbled upon “Everything at Once,” with Nathan Stocker’s tricky little guitar lope becoming the basis for the slowly rising rhythm of drummer Whistler Allen and bassist ZachSutton. Stepping outside for some space, Luppen quickly penned a thesis of self-criticism and self-forgiveness. Being less than the expectations of an industry, a family, or a faith are totally normal, he suggests in an anthem of empowerment that is almost casual. He gives himself the grace of being human: “You gotta lay down sometimes, be patient sometimes,” Luppen sings, layers of lean vocals crisscrossing one another like light beams.“And feel everything at once.” That is precisely what Hippo Campus do best on Flood — feel everything and transmute it all into songs that are inescapable. Take “Brand New,” three minutes of brilliantly coiled pop, its spring-loaded rhythm lifting a guitar line built from pin pricks skyward. It’s about being ruined by the letdown of a failed relationship and then finding a way forward, toward something so good you haven’t even imagined it yet. It sounds that way, too. There’s the completely compulsive “Tooth Fairy,” a quick-moving meditation on the confusion of interpersonal dynamics. Hippo Campus smear bits of gentle psychedelia around a rhythm, riff, and hook that have the sleek lines of a sports car; the result is a dynamic wonder, a song that feels emphatic at the start but reaches full triumph by the end. Inspired by staring down cycles of addiction too long without taking steps to break them, “Corduroy” finds the space between a bummer country blues and a sweetly devotional waltz. Its vows of love, trust, and doubt are buoyed and also undercut by its slow rises and falls, a musical portrait of trying to take that difficult next step. The sentiments on Flood are raw, real, and unguarded, a testament to Hippo Campus dropping preconceptions of how they had to sound after so many failed attempts to re-record these songs. They wiped the slate clean, starting over without beliefs about what Hippo Campus or this record needed to be. Still, sophistication lurks in subtle key and tempo changes, in the almost innate shifts that a band of longtime best friends can tap after so much time spent helping to shape one another’s musical language. Flood doesn’t need to tell you it’s important or interesting; it simply is, just by virtue of how it’s written, built, and rendered, a map of what it’s like to feel everything at once. This rebirth is accompanied by a crucial career shift for Hippo Campus, too, as they exit the traditional label system to issue LP4 via Psychic Hotline, a truly independent imprint run by peers and pals. If you’re working to let go of expectations, why not jettison them all? There’s a bravery to that, and you can hear its revivifying spirit in every second of LP4. Early into the endlessly propulsive “Paranoid,” where stunted acoustic strums undergird an inescapable jangle, Luppen asks an existential question: “Is there something waiting out there for us at the finish line?” For the next three minutes, the band cycles with him through his woes, from the title’s overwhelming worry to notions of dislocation and loneliness. (Also, is there any other refrain ever that manages to make the phrase “so god-damned fucking” sound so catchy and natural?) But in the final verse, with his voice breaking through a scrim of distortion, he stumbles upon a new credo: “Wait, I wanna give this life all that I have in me.” That is precisely what Hippo Campus have done with Flood after realizing it doesn’t take a lifetime — or, well, five years — to do just that.

The Beaches

The Beaches are doing everything their way. After more than a decade together as a band, sisters Jordan Miller (lead vocals, bass) and Kylie Miller (guitar), plus closest friends Leandra Earl (guitar and keys) and Eliza Enman-McDaniel (drums), are entering a new era. On the new album “Blame My Ex,” the 4x Juno Award-winning Toronto band channels heartbreak into self-discovery through 10 exuberant songs that revel in pain and redemption. The lead single, “Blame Brett,” an acerbic pop-rock knockout Jordan calls “a song for all the hot messes out there,” has racked up over 70 million streams on Spotify and over 10 million views on TikTok. The track peaked at #2 on Spotify’s US Viral chart, #20 at Alternative Radio in the US and #1 at Alt Radio in Canada for 13 consecutive weeks, making it the biggest alternative radio hit of the year. Mark Hoppus (blink182), Nelly Furtado, and Demi Lovato are all fans of the track. Since the success of Blame Brett, The Beaches sold out their worldwide Blame My Ex tour, including Toronto’s Budweiser Stage (16000 tickets) three months ahead of their show, Vancouver’s Orpheum (2750 tickets), Brooklyn’s Williamsburg Music Hall x2 (1300 tickets), Los Angeles’s Troubador x2 (1000 tickets) & London, UK’s O2 Forum Kentish Town (2250 tickets). They sold over 70,000 tickets on their worldwide tour, includingn selling out Toronto’s Bud Stage (16,000 capacity) three months in advance.

Rachel Chinouriri

Rachel Chinouriri is 2024’s most exciting British breakout star. With the release of her debut album What A Devastating Turn Of Events she cemented her reputation as one of the UK’s most accomplished young songwriters. Making the album was a cathartic experience for Chinouriri: by putting the challenges and joys of her life so far under a microscope she traverses themes of life, death, home and belonging, mental health, love and letting go with unflinching honesty, resulting in a one of the most unique indie pop records in years. What A Devastating Turn Of Events landed in the Top 20 of the UK Official Charts and led to Rachel securing her first two BRIT Award nominations (Artist Of The Year, Best New Artist), following previous nominations for an Ivor Novello award, multiple Rolling Stone UK awards and being tipped on the BBC’s coveted Sound Of poll. Following the album’s release she played a triumphant and emotional set on Glastonbury’s The Other Stage, sold out her UK headline tour and starts 2025 by supporting Sabrina Carpenter on all dates of her Spring UKand Europe arena tour. With her fiercely loyal fanbase, the ‘Darlings’ behind her, and over 2.4 million monthly Spotify listeners, Chinouriri has clocked up over 233 million global streams to date. Over years of experimenting with musical stylings, highlighted in her exploratory 2021 Four° in Winter project, Rachel began to hone a style totally her own with her 2022 EP Better Off Without, blending her signature delicate vocals with pure indie instrumentation. She has been praised by the likes of The Observer (“brimming with fresh ideas”), NME (“consistently charming”), GQ (“Chinouriri is set to dominate”), BBC Radio 1, Later… With Jools Holland and more. Elsewhere, she’s received recognition and support from the likes of Adele, Lewis Capaldi, Sam Fender and Hollywood darling Florence Pugh, who starred in the video for Rachel’s single ‘Never Need Me’.

Julien Baker & TORRES

Gigi Perez

Born in New Jersey, and raised in Royal Palm Beach, Florida, Gigi Perez is a rising alternative singer-songwriter. After a brief stint at the Berklee College of Music, Gigi shared an original track “Sometimes (Backwood)” on social media. The song became an instant success, generating over 18M streams within a month, reaching #1 on Spotify’s U.S. Viral chart, and to date surpassing 200M streams worldwide. She went on to work with music producer Jennifer Decilveo, releasing her debut EP, “How To Catch A Falling Knife” in April 2023. The EP included singles “Sally,” “The Man,” and “Figurines.” Following the EP, Gigi spent the year performing at various festivals and headline shows across the US, UK and EU. After parting ways with Interscope Records in early 2024, Gigi began releasing songs independently, first with “Normalcy,” her first-ever self-produced track “Please Be Rude,” as well as the hit single, “Sailor Song,” that’s amassed over 400M global streams to date. She earned her first ever U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart entry in August 2024, debuting at #98 and climbing to a peak to date at #22.  Most recently, Gigi released self-written and self-produced track, “Fable.” She supported both Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners and girl in red this Fall, in addition to headlining New York, Los Angeles, London and Berlin dates.  Up next for Gigi is new music, and more live shows.

Joy Oladokun

Acclaimed singer, songwriter and producer Joy Oladokun has been hailed by Rolling Stone as “Nashville’s most low-key musical revolutionary” and widely celebrated for her uniquely vulnerable voice. Since her breakthrough in 2020, Oladokun has released two highly acclaimed albums—2021’s in defense of my own happiness and 2023’s Proof of Life—both of which landed on numerous best-of-the-year lists. Currently, Oladokun is preparing to release her third studio album, which includes her latest single “DRUGS,” and is embarking on an extensive tour that includes dates with Hozier and Tyler Childers. A proud queer Black artist and daughter of Nigerian immigrants, Oladokun has graced prestigious stages including “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” “CBS Saturday Morning,” “TODAY,” PBS’ “Austin City Limits,” and NPR Music’s “Tiny Desk (Home) Concert.” Oladokun’s music has resonated across diverse platforms, from documentaries to popular TV series like “And Just Like That,” “CSI: Vegas” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” Her song “i see america” was a finalist for the Recording Academy’s Special Merit Award for Best Song for Social Change. Widely respected by her peers, Oladokun has collaborated with artists such as Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Jason Isbell and Noah Kahan and has joined Morris, Isbell, Kahan, John Mayer, My Morning Jacket, Pink Sweat$, Leon Bridges and Manchester Orchestra on the road.

Ashe

Willson, Ashe’s third studio album, is a triumphant follow-up to her debut album Ashlyn and sophomore album Rae. (2 billion career streams, 1 million IG, 1.3 million Tik Tok)

The third in the installment, and her surname, Willson is a strong return to Ashe’s songwriting roots and marks her return to Nashville, where she started her career after graduating from Berklee College of Music.

A record about her life-altering divorce changed her life for the better, “Moral of the Story” went viral mere weeks before the pandemic in 2020 – leading to billions of streams and global tours for years before it led to a career burnout.

She took a pause, moved back to Nashville where her career had started and took some time to reset and re-center herself. She bought a home and renovated it herself. When she was finally convinced to join a friend’s writing session, she fell back in love with music again. She came home from the session and the first song of what became Willson poured out of her. She was back.

Willson is about staying true to who you are, coming back to yourself after losing yourself, and understanding that it’s all part of the human experience. This is the first album Ashe will be releasing independently, after parting ways with previous label of 7 years. She is the primary songwriter of the album as well as the creative director for the project visuals. Willson feels sticky and sweet – like getting bit by a mosquito on a hot, summer day.

Sunday (1994)

Sunday (1994) is a story of love. A love that turns lonely long-haul flights into emotional dramas, and bad apartments into settings. A love that starts with a meet-cute and never ends. A love that was born out of music, bonded by music, and now explored in music. Sunday (1994) is a soundtrack.

Directed by Sofia Coppola’s angst or John Hughes’ faith in the feeling, we open on a scene of Paige Turner and Lee Newell in their one bed on Kenmore Avenue in Koreatown. The year is 2020, police helicopters buzz overhead and their dog barks incessantly. It’s a Sunday, but a bittersweet one.

That was the day the band began, but it had been on the drawing board for nearly a decade. “When we met, I was like ‘Oh we’re going to have to spend forever together,’” Lee says to Paige, recalling their first meeting backstage at a show. Soon after that meeting, 10 years ago, he moved his life from Slough to Suburban California, into Paige’s busy Italian family home, which is a whole other film scene in itself. Despite having played in bands for years prior, this is where Lee found his musical soulmate, combining his British indie streak with her affliction for wistful pop and her family’s classic rock vinyl collection. Their relationship was always going to be musical, so they mark the day the band was born from that very first moment.

“I’ve learned everything I know about songwriting from being with you so much, and we write so much music together,” Paige tells Lee. “You’re underselling yourself,” he cuts in. “She’s always had an amazing natural instinct for writing and singing. I’m a billion times better songwriter now than I was before we started working together.”

“It feels like this band has been 10 years in the making,” they said. Both have been in other bands and projects prior, Lee having been in Viva Brother as Paige explored alt-pop as Xylo, but Sunday (1994) feels like the band of their life.

“I feel like it knew what it was from the moment we started writing it. We didn’t really have to question what it would sound like or feel like, or even what the artwork would look like. We already knew,” the pair explained.

From the second Paige played the progression of ‘Tired Boy’, made up of the first chords Lee taught her to play on guitar, the project was brought to life as a thorough and vibrant thing. It was always going to be Sunday, stylised with Paige’s birth year like a movie. It was always going to be wistful, poetic pop meeting indie and grunge. It was always going to be cinematic and vaster than anything they’d ever done before. And it was always going to be the two of them.

“It sounds so obvious to say, but when you enjoy making something, it tends to be quite good, because it comes from a real place. It’s not a place of desperation or trying to make something work. It just works,” Lee explained of those days writing in Koreatown. Finally pulling together all of the ideas they’d shared throughout their 10 years together; their debut project came together quickly and effortlessly.

Having both squirrelled away precious lyrics and thoughts for years in waiting for this moment, Sunday (1994) is a montage of everything that had come before for the couple, both together and separately. On ‘Our Troubles’, Lee’s pen takes the band back to Slough and moments of personal struggle before having ever met Paige. Now sang through her voice, it’s a healing sound. Similarly, in ‘The Loneliness Of The Long Flight Home’, a reference to the Tony Richardson film, The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner, Paige’s voice is lent to a love song about leaving her, when they navigated long distance from opposite sides of an ocean. Not only is it beautiful, but it makes them better. “He’ll bring out different sides to me or places that I wouldn’t necessarily go to,” Paige says. “He’ll play me something and be like, ‘Can you sing this?’ and it might be darker than what I would write, but there’s no apprehension.”

All coming to fruition and entering the world outside of their apartment like two characters walking onto the screen, Sunday (1994) are ready for their premiere. Along with their enigmatic, anonymous drummer, ‘x’, their sound is cinematic in the truest sense. It’s music you can imagine characters running through airports to, racing after love. They’re songs for bedroom floor tears or the first time two hands touch. It’s a release that captures a love story, and every love story that has ever and will ever happen, in all of its sweet, daydreaming and dramatic beauty.

Paris Paloma

As she watched friends skim stones on Brighton Beach, Paris Paloma felt energy shift. Like heat returning to numb fingertips, life felt like it was taking shape again after a long period of personal trauma. With a diaphanous sheath of lyrics in mind, she went to Bergen, Norway to work on new music. On the three days of the year that it didn’t rain in Europe’s wettest city, among the silvery lakes and mountain peaks, life grew ever brighter. “the warmth” was formed. “I ate up all the light, it shone through my teeth, I tasted sunbeams emanating from me… it can’t hurt me… now the warmth is returning,” she sings in unfurling harmonies, spectral with full-bodied pop, a determined percussive march building like a personal artillery. This emotional arc would be core to Paris Paloma’s debut album, cacophony. The Derbyshire-born musician gave the world “labour” in 2023. It was the first song she’d ever fully recorded in a proper studio – early releases like “narcissus” in 2020, 2021 EP cemeteries and socials, and 2023’s “notre dame” were produced in her own bedroom or others’. But early clips she posted with stolen lyrics of “labour” to TikTok had already garnered a curious audience. Its journal-like lyricism and incisive strain of compelling, dark folk-pop skewered the knots of women’s emotional labour, and it immediately became a rallying cry worldwide upon official release. The Gold-certified track has broken over 450 million streams, cracked the Official UK Singles Chart and US Billboard Chart, and soundtracked tens of thousands of TikToks. It spurred on sold-out shows around the UK, and Paris, armed with a compact slew of songs, travelled to the US and Australia for the festival circuit. “I matured because of ‘labour’,” Paris explains. “As a young artist you’re both protected and limited – you’re putting songs that are so intimate into a void. It’s made me more considerate about how vulnerable these songs are going to be.” Such vulnerability can be difficult to confront, and all the more to articulate as art, “but I feel very held by my listeners,” Paris says. This symbiotic care between artist and listener is innate within Paris’s devoted fanbase. She’s cultivated a community both online and off: on TikTok, her 1.4M followers send her videos (of thoughts, song snippets, and tour moments) into six-figure views. Fan-made art and videos analysing her lyrics span social media. She also crowdsourced the voices of hundreds of fans for a new version of “labour” in “labour (the cacophony)”. These are roots laid deep, as Paris gains wider recognition from British Vogue to NME to Billboard, as YouTube’s Trending Artist on the Rise and a Breakthrough Artist to Watch 2024 by Amazon. She also performed an intimate version of “labour” on Later… with Jools Holland and most recently, a powerful performance on Late Night with Stephen Colbert with backing vocals from The Resistance Revival Chorus and a set inspired by Judy Chicago’s iconic feminist art installation, The Dinner Party (the viral performance is currently at over 14M views on TikTok). A graduate of fine art from Goldsmiths University (her first tattoo was a tribute to female surrealist artist Ithell Colquhoun), Paris’s creative mediums have influenced each other since she first started writing songs at age 14. Her early releases’ visual identities are crafted from her own fantasy drawings. Now, cacophony is inspired by the creation that comes out of chaos– in 15 tracks, we’re shown Paris as an evocative lyricist who constellates human experiences of grief, love, patriarchy, and trauma with Greek mythology, fantasy, and the literary gothic. The album name is inspired by Stephen Fry’s Mythos, ruminating on the creation myth. “Fromthis chaotic cosmic yawn, creation sprang forth,” Paris explains, “so this is a collection that makes sense of the overwhelming space of my mind where my anxiety, my OCD, and trauma processing lives.” Songwriting is a catharsis and coping mechanism, which she uses to articulate her struggles in real time. The sprawling metaphor of chaos to creation knits the album’s universe together. “As I began to combine songs, I could see my struggles, the fantasy, the ‘hero’s journey’.” Paris found tracks incidentally informing each other, and so the album has been curated rather than conceptualised to find a natural rhythm akin to Greek theatre staging – or “a quest”, as Paris puts it. “I love linear storytelling, following the protagonist inflected by a journey. Looking back, I can track my own wellbeing, my growth.” Album opener “my mind (now)” and closer “yeti” are opposites: “We start with the turmoil, open up the chaos, scramble back to redemption and healing.” She describes her songwriting as undisciplined, but always begins with lyrics – a starting couplet or image to elucidate. Melody follows. “My mind has not been silent since you,” she sings vaporously on “my mind (now)”. A haunting fugue draws you in: “What did I do wrong”, across skittering percussion and a glut of trumpets, lanced by crunching guitars and a piercing feral scream. She flexes her songwriting dichotomy, weaving the personal with haunting symbolism – a striking image of strawberry picking while someone else readies their cruelty. “boys, bugs, and men” draws on men’s sadistic behaviours, using natural world imagery to unspool the banalities of a patriarchy that hurts both genders. “I love the feral, feminine aspects of my music,” says Paris. “Being unapologetically vulnerable feels wild – it’s breaking down boundaries, a return to something primal.” “bones on the beach” is a “turning point”. “I wrote it at a time when I was coming out of survival mode,” she explains. “It starts from exhaustion and wanting the world to stop asking things of you. And as it progresses, there’s a realisation – you will find peace in life when you start living and taking care of yourself.” Three album tracks – “escape pod”, “last woman on earth”, “bones on the beach” – are her ‘apocalypse trio’. “When it felt like my world was ending,” she says. “last woman on earth” is an emotive, upward contour, about coping with and confronting the ways her voice has been taken away. She leans on dark metaphors to find light. “Women’s wishes for what happens after they die have been consistently dishonoured: from Anne Boleyn to Marilyn Monroe. It’s the ultimate show of disrespect,” she says. “It becomes an uplifting point – it shows my growing belief in my own agency.” “triassic love song” is an aching ode to external love returning to her life, imagery inspired by an archaeological discovery of two fossils of different animal species intertwined. “It’s a tender narrative marker. Love was becoming a healing force, but I was conscious of an end being nigh.” She matches this with expansive productions – dramatic instrumentation, folk sensibilities, pop at its most cavernous. It makes sense for someone who first picked up a guitar at age 13, enamoured by Ed Sheeran, Bon Iver, and the eclectic sounds of her upbringing from the Motown and jazz her mother played. “my mind (now)” was especially fun to build. Parisrecalls: “I didn’t want any structure that could be a ‘life raft’. It has to almost overwhelm you, then pull back. You’re a tiny raft in the ocean, you’re surely going to go under – but you don’t.” After building a song out on vocals and guitar, her notes app and songbook, she makes a playlist to convey the sonic palette. “as good a reason” was inspired by Alt-J and early Hozier; “labour” from Glass Animals and Katarina Gimon’s compositions. “I don’t know what genre I am. I don’t give it much thought. The second I do, I’ll start limiting myself.” The album spans the breadth of Paris’s vocal range. “my mind (now)” is the first time she’s screamed on record. On “his land” – a melancholic offering about isolation, inspired by the reduction of British public lands – she reaches her lowest tone. In the “last woman on earth” bridge, she belts her highest. “It was really hard to get up there. My songs, age 20, were mumbly and soft. In part it was a tone thing, and in part confidence. Now I write songs and push myself to grow toward it, as opposed to making everything sound the same.” Worldbuilding is cinched by visual aesthetic – Paris gravitates towards the eerie feminine fashion of Bora Aksu and Simone Rocha and is styled for stage by Leith Clark. If each song could have a music video, she would. The striking visual for “my mind (now)”, directed by Matt Grass, is darkly fantastical. “I want everyone to see my musical world as I do,” she says. Live performance is vital to her artistry, and Paris has sold out four headline London shows. At every gig, her lyrics are sung directly back at her. “One of the reasons you write is to feel heard,” she says. “It’s an audience that wants to know more.” The intimacy of the music remains steadfast as stages get bigger. Over the last year, she has supported Stevie Nicks in London at BST Hyde Park, embarked on festival season, including shows at Glastonbury and Reading Festival, and sold-out multiple UK, US and European tours. She has just completed a sold-out North American tour and is set to grace stages again this summer for her biggest sold-out UK dates yet. cacophony is “a stage backdrop”, against which all future music will be positioned. “I’ve chronically released singles and been quite nomadic. I’m excited to set the scene for my world.” She’s already working on the threads of her next album, a Paris Paloma tapestry in motion.

Griff

Caroline Kingsbury

Orion Sun

Maude Latour

G Flip

The Aces

Hailing from Provo, Utah, The Aces were formed by then pre-teen sisters Cristal and Alisa Ramirez (lead vocals/guitar and drums), Katie Henderson (lead guitar/vocals), and McKenna Petty (bass). The members of the group were longtime friends, and it didn’t take long for them to click as songwriters and musicians. Known for their infectious melodies & emotional honesty, the group has released 3 LP’s where they’ve solidified their sound and space in music.

With their latest single release, “The Magic”, The Aces have reached new pop heights and build on their many previous successes. To date, the group has earned over 250 million career streams; their third LP, Under My Influence alone garnered more than 80 million (including 41 million across DSPs on its lead single ‘Daydream’). Furthermore, The Aces have toured with the likes of 5 Seconds of Summer, X Ambassadors, The Vamps, and COIN, and have played at festivals all over the world, including NY Pride, Lollapalooza, Firefly, Bonnaroo, OUTFEST, Sziget, Pukkelpop and more. In 2024, they opened for Chappell Roan at Kentucky Pride and recently completed a US tour with Goth Babe – rapidly becoming one of pop’s most exciting and authentic voices.

Bartees Strange

MICHELLE

MICHELLE’s first project of buoyant R&B tracks was an ode to New York City, the city where all 6 members of the band grew up. But amid the success of that project, 2018’s HEATWAVE, and 2022’s AFTER DINNER WE TALK DREAMS, they left home and broadened their perspective. The band traveled across the U.S. and Europe opening for Gus Dapperton, Arlo Parks, and Mitski, headlining their own shows, and playing festivals.

While writing their new album, Songs About You Specifically, MICHELLE decided to rent out a house in Ojai, California. Surrounded by lizards, the smell of ripe cactus fruit, and endless expanses of sand, they experienced a sense of solitude and closeness they hadn’t before. It shifted the tone of their work. While their earlier music channeled the churning restlessness of the city, these news songs meander and expand into starry shoegaze reveries, slick funk riffs, and lilting 80s synth pop.

Their newfound closeness also helped them write more vulnerable music. On Songs About You Specifically, the band members express their complicated desires, voice their regrets, and own up to their moments of selfishness. By slowing down, cutting out any distractions, and fostering a sense of communal closeness that necessitated honesty, MICHELLE ended up with a collection of songs that feel like the truth.

hey, nothing

Barely 20 years old, the Atlanta-based emo-folk duo hey, nothing – Tyler (he) & Harlow (they) – wades through complex emotions with sharp wit and humor. They have sold out runs of headlining shows, garnered notices from the likes of NPR Music, Alternative Press, Pigeons & Planes, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, & more. They hit ~100k total streams per day, with their fanbase on both TikTok and Instagram swiftly approaching the 300k mark each. 2024’s Maine EP — written, fittingly, in a small cabin in the middle of Maine — was a major breakthrough moment for the band, incorporating earnest and cutting lyrics that pull directly from their experience of the hardships of growing up too early, too fast. They’ll continue carving a bold path forward with a new EP, 33°, on 2/14; they’ve already been announced as part of the lineups for 2025’s Kilby Block Party and Bonnaroo, and they’ll be announcing more 2025 tour dates soon.

Peach PRC

Peach PRC takes the things you only say on text to close friends (or exes) and turns them into pop that shimmers as much as it singes. The rising pop star packs an often unbelievable journey from writing and recording in her bedroom to social media phenomenon into smart, slick, and sweet songs with a bold bite. Equally funny and sensitive, she holds nothing back when it comes to life’s ups and downs, mental health, and everything in between. Peach PRC has received over 2 billion social views, a combined audience of 4 million-plus social followers, generated over 220 million combined artist streams, and attracted acclaim from Billboard, Rolling Stone, Vogue Australia, BuzzFeed, Consequence, NME, Paper, Refinery29 and more. Launching her TikTok page in 2019, she organically attracted an audience by posting everything from funny moments to self-care advice and, of course, music. A snippet of her first single “Blondes” played over the background of a video where she discussed the track’s meaning, and it went viral. The full version eventually amassed over 15 million Spotify streams as she maintained this momentum with the follow-up “Colourblind”, racking up another 4 million Spotify streams. Along the way, she carefully cultivated an undeniable style with a twist. That twist defines her debut single “Josh,” the ultimate kiss-off to the worst ex ever and has already received over 36 million streams and counting. Peach PRC followed up the success of “Josh” with her self-proclaimed girly camp pop single “Symptomatic”, receiving over 12 million plus combined streams to date, and ending 2021 with “Heavy”, which has tallied 22 million plus combined streams. In 2022, Peach PRC released the liberating single “God Is A Freak” and had everyone talking including pop music titans Billie Eilish, Finneas, and Justin Tranter. Followed up by “Forever Drunk”, where she teamed up with GRAMMY Award-nominated powerhouse songwriter Bonnie McKee. In 2023, she captivated audiences and tastemakers with the Manic Dream Pixie EP. Beyond piling up millions of streams, it debuted at #1 on the ARIA Albums Chart. The chart-topping EP included singles “Kinda Famous”, “F U Goodbye”, and “Perfect For You” which notably pays tribute to Paris Hilton’s gold-certified 2006 smash “Stars Are Blind.” Among the EP’s acclaim, she received multiple ARIA Award nominations (Best Pop, Best Video, and Best Artwork), and nominated at this year’s TikTok Awards (Music Act of The Year). 2024 also saw Peach PRC travelling the globe, performing for a sold-out debut headline tour with stops across Australia, North America, and the United Kingdom. With special performances that include supporting BlackPink in London’s Hyde Park, Splendour in the Grass Festival, Spilt Milk Festival, Falls Festival and Spin Off Festival. 2025 is setting up to be a massive year with multiple new singles to be released and once again international and Australian tours. As always, there’s no shortage of passion, power, and pink. It is Peach PRC after all…

Hazlett

The indie songwriter Hazlett was born and raised in Australia and after spending a lot of time living abroad is making a grand return back home in support of David Kushner.

After years of playing in bars in his native Australia, Hazlett’s unique brand of “Indie Ballroom Folk” only became crystallized after a chance encounter during a runaway trip to Sweden. It was there he found the fabled collaborator chemistry in close friend Freddy Alexander. A lot has changed since then and what started as just writing songs to “figure out some things in his head…” has now become a whole world of music and beautiful details to move through. Emphasized by the release of his debut album Bloom Mountain in early 2023.

His propensity for figuring things out himself and turning chaos into some kind of nostalgic lesson hasn’t gone unnoticed either, with The Line of Best Fit noting that “Hazlett is offering up a hazy, textured version of the classic singer-songwriter sound”

Even though the nerves never quite go away, there’s this newfound quiet confidence to the troubadour from the land down under. You may not have met, but sometimes when you’re listening to Hazlett he feels like the only friend you’ve ever had.

Alemeda

Alemeda, the emerging Ethiopian-Sudanese artist makes Alternative Rock/Pop music as a form of self-expression and empowerment. The 23-year-old Singer/Songwriter/Producer made a name for herself with her viral 2021 debut single, “Gonna Bleach My Eyebrows, ” which has earned more than 8 million streams to date, following up with, “Post Nut Clarity” (two million and rising), in the summer of 2022. Telling tales of leveling up, and leaving regrettable exes in the past, she weaves between pop, rock, and alternative stylings while using soft melodies to capture her unbothered attitude. Alemeda’s introduction to music was fairly unconventional. She grew up between Ethiopia and Arizona in a stern household with strict religious rules and customs where she was alienated from music up until the age of 10. She found secret solace in songs via an analog clock radio. Some of the first tunes she fell in love with included Coldplay’s, “Viva La Vida” and Rihanna’s, “Only Girl (In the World).” This eventually led to her posting covers online and taking part in local talent shows at the age of 13. Criticism and familial disapproval of her musical aspirations only made her more determined to push the envelope. She recalls, “I was very in my culture’s opinion, ‘a rebellious kid’, so kids like that in my African community were sent back to Ethiopia to discipline them by reinforcing the values of our culture. It was basically my mom’s way of ‘straightening me out’, but that obviously didn’t work, so it was kind of a waste of time.” After graduating high school in 2017, she impulsively left to Los Angeles to pursue her passion of music. Since then, she’s written songs that bared her soul and now she’s hoping to prove that her ambition stretches far beyond her own career. Inspired by the artists she loves—Coldplay, Maroon 5, Rihanna, and Arctic Monkeys, she is relentless in being a representation amongst her fellow East Africans in this diaspora. Her recently released single, “UR SO FULL OF IT”, offers a glimpse into a new chapter of Alemeda’s career, moving on from the turbulent emotions of adolescence, to showcasing her growth and confidence. Influenced by the frustration she felt in a long-distance relationship, “UR SO FULL OF IT”, captures that angry energy and redirects it. “No, we can’t be friends again / had your chance, but I’m over it”, she sings. This is an anthem about turning pain into power. With her highly anticipated & recently released debut EP “FK IT”, she’s determined for her music to be a light in the darkness for others, just as she needed to be for herself. “When I started out in music, my biggest support system was East Africans all over the globe”, she says. “Growing up in a refugee family it was very important to me to be successful and inspire others like myself to have the extreme belief that no dream is impossible.”

Zinadelphia

Molly Grace

jasmine.4.t

Carol Ades

Emotions make a mess. It’s not the kind of mess you can just shove under the bed either. Carol Ades isn’t here to help you scrub out the mess until you can’t see it anymore. Instead, she’s here to help you celebrate it, learn something from it, and move on confidently because of it. The New Jersey-born and Los Angeles-based artist, singer, and songwriter wants to empower you, but she’s going to keep it real too. Carol dedicated her whole life to music and even had a few brushes with major success on stage and behind-the-scenes. Following a bad breakup, she turned inward and wasn’t afraid to get raw in 2018. Under the influence of everything from the series Fleabag, Greta Gerwig, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Glennon Doyle to Japanese House, MUNA, and Phoebe Bridgers, she began to write her own “coming of age” story. Ironically, the first song of this phase ended up in the hands of two other artists, becoming “Past Life” for Trevor Daniel and Selena Gomez. With the onset of quarantine, she wrote for herself at a prolific pace, making emotional lyric-driven songs “you can scream to or sob to in your car.” You’ll find she’s a lot like the friend who lets you cry on her shoulder, but still tells it like it is when you need to hear it the most, holding your hand through the mess with timeless music of her own.