Latest news with #altpop
South China Morning Post
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Meet Lorde's talented little sister Indy Yelich, who's also a singer: she followed the ‘Royals' songstress from New Zealand to NYC and has also published 2 books of poetry
Indy Yelich-O'Connor, singer Lorde's younger sister, is all set to release her new EP, Fame is a Bedroom, on August 1. Following the introspective alt-pop vibes of her debut EP Threads, the new collection promises to explore the themes of intimacy, sexuality, emotional entanglement and sisterhood. Indy Yelich-O'Connor is a musician just like her sister Lorde. Photo: @indyyelich1/Instagram Earlier this year, Yelich unveiled the poignant single 'Savior', a raw and honest reflection on a turbulent past relationship marked by a painful power imbalance. Written on a rainy day with friends, the track captures the emotional unravelling she experienced when her partner, more a guardian and father figure than a lover, ended their relationship abruptly on Valentine's Day as she was about to fly home to release her debut EP. Advertisement Indy Yelich is known for her emotionally candid songwriting. Photo: @indyyelich1/Instagram Born in New Zealand and now based in New York City, Yelich continues to carve out her own distinct voice separate from her famous sister. Here's everything you need to know about the confident and charismatic musician. Her life inspires her writing Indy Yelich writes songs inspired by her life and relationships. Photo: @indyyelich1/Instagram Yelich told Vogue Australia in September 2022 that the words are always her starting point, which makes the music 'very much my real life'. Apart from 'Savior', Yelich's single 'East Coast', which was released last year, is inspired by a road trip along the Pacific Coast Highway with her friends. The song reflects her real-life journey of leaving a rocky long-distance relationship and reclaiming her sense of self. 'When I wrote it, I was going back and forth from east to west very consistently on a plane. Like, for probably about six months I had all my belongings in a little carry-on,' she told The New Zealand Herald in June 2024. 'The desire to be young and free was just not what the reality of my life was and it was quite cathartic to write it.' Indy Yelich experiences anxiety, the subject of her song 'Killer'. Photo: @indyyelich1/Instagram 'I would rather go to space than end up cold in your arms,' she coos at the start of her debut EP Threads, singing about a love interest that once was. A louder and more intense song on the album, 'Killer', describes her embrace of anxiety. She's also a poet
BBC News
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
BBC Introducing: Reading's Jessy Blakemore on her debut single
"When I was co-producing these tracks I really wanted it to feel as if you were in the room with me as I was writing." Jessy Blakemore hopes her newly-released music has captured the intimacy of the songs she first composed in her bedroom in debut single burna is the first sign that she has captured the realness she was aiming for, something "super stripped-back, super honest, and super raw".The up and coming alt-pop artist is signed to record label Black Butter Records, who helped bring artists like Rudimental, Gorgon City, and J Hus to public awareness. Blakemore first drew attention to her own talent via TikTok and Instagram clips of her typically stripped-down performances - her Kendrick Lamar and Shiloh Dynasty covers have so far been viewed more than a million times each. She recently took her own songs to a larger stage, such as supporting SZA at BST Hyde Park, and appearing at The Great Escape and Cross The Tracks experiences have stacked up as the momentum has ramped up - after one gig actor and musician Idris Elba said her performance was like "watching magic", and her face has appeared on digital billboards in London."I could not believe it - like wow, what a compliment, it was insane," Blakemore says of Elba's declaration, while the billboard was "so bizarre" but made her feel "super proud".She adds: "I'm trying to turn my nerves into excitement... it's a super scary thing. "I've never released music before. I'm just trying to roll with it, take it all in my stride." Blakemore counts Frank Ocean, Amy Winehouse, and Bon Iver among her loves Lauryn Hill too, particularly her 2001 MTV Unplugged performance, divisive upon release but largely since re-appraised as intimately capturing an artist baring her soul."I've honestly watched and listened to that Unplugged so many times," Blakemore says."I just think it's really nice to invite people into your world, into your space, into your mind."How does she find that process herself?"It's something I've had to learn to do, especially with performing. "It's very easy to be vulnerable in your own space, when you write a song in your own room, but taking it to a stage and performing it is so different." Blakemore's single burna explores infidelity from a male perspective, a songwriting decision she says "opened up this whole new world", but she constantly draws inspiration from those around her."I love whenever I'm on the train or on the bus. I'm always so nosey, listening to other people, because people sometimes say the most poetic and profound things in their daily lives," she explains."So I'm just trying to pay attention to how my friends talk, asking loads of questions, kind of collecting data!"Jessy Blakemore releases her debut EP in September. burna is out now. You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Mail & Guardian
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Mail & Guardian
Diary: Mikhaela Faye releases Gaslighter, Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival kicks off in June and award winning play The Hyena's Tuckshop at The Market Theatre
Foretaste: Mikhaela Faye's recent EP comes ahead of a new album. Press play on Mikhaela's new track and feel the fire Cape Town's genre-bending alt-pop rebel Mikhaela Faye is back with Gaslighter, a punk-tinged breakup anthem that's equal parts catharsis and chaos. Drenched in early-2000s nostalgia — think Avril Lavigne, Blink-182, Sum 41 — the track flips the script on toxic love with sugary hooks and just enough bite. Born from a long-overdue 'aha!' moment after dating a narcissist, Gaslighter is the first time Mikhaela says she could write about the experience without being consumed by rage. Produced with Josh Berry of Honeymoan in a game-like creative process, the song captures that perfect mix of unfiltered emotion and playfulness. It's the first taste of her upcoming EP I'm Bored, which she describes as 'hyperactive escapism' — a wild, fast-paced sonic ride. Since the more introspective days of her debut Not Now Later, Mikhaela's sound has exploded. Gaslighter is streaming everywhere now. Be at this freedom festival – entry is free! Johannesburg's most dynamic celebration of youth, creativity and culture returns as Constitution Hill's Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival and kicks off its 2025 edition with fresh energy and an expanded programme. Since 2012, Basha Uhuru has honoured the spirit of 1976 while empowering today's youth. Anchored by the theme Celebrating The Legacy Of Creative Expression, this year's festival marks Youth Month with a powerful mix of inspiration, learning and connection through The Creative Conference. Don't miss the electrifying Amapiano Africa Summit on 28 June, now in its third edition, spotlighting one of SA's most influential music movements through workshops, panels and live performances. The Films of Freedom showcase takes over the Women's Jail on 27 June with student and professional films tackling youth and politics. Then gear up for summer as The Sounds of Freedom Music Festival heats up the city on 13 September. Lively production for kids tackles serious themes Child's play: The award-winning The Hyena's Tuckshop is on at the Market Theatre precinct this month. Joburg parents, grab your little ones and head to The Market Theatre this month for a bold and brilliant children's theatre experience that promises laughs, music and lessons that last a lifetime. The Hyena's Tuckshop, the award-winning play by Mongezi Ntukwana, starts the Kippies Fringe programme curated by The Art Cave from 26 to 29 June, with only five performances in the intimate 50-seater next to the Market. It's a riot of rhythm, colour and clever rebellion as a sly hyena sells dodgy snacks at sky-high prices — until one sharp rabbit dares to stand up to him. Inspired by issues around food safety in schools, this playful production tackles serious themes with heart, humour and unforgettable pantsula-infused dance. Winner of Best Script and Best Director at this year's Young Directors Festival, The Hyena's Tuckshop is a lively, powerful lesson in courage and justice. Tickets via Webtickets.
.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
Vogue
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue
Smerz Are the Norwegian Duo Making the Off-Kilter Pop Music of Your Dreams
While promoting their debut album, 2021's Believer, Catharina Stoltenberg and Henriette Motzfeldt, the duo behind the cult alt-pop duo Smerz, remarked upon the fact that doing press interviews and photo shoots wasn't exactly something they enjoyed. You could chalk that up to the fact that, as Scandinavians—dividing their time between Oslo, where they're from, and Copenhagen—self-promotion doesn't come totally naturally to them: the Danish concept of Janteloven, a kind of unspoken moral code woven through Scandinavian society that discourages expressions of personal ambition or success, is deeply ingrained. Speaking to them in the week before the release of their stellar second album, Big City Life, I have to ask first: Has that element of being a musician got any easier for them, or begun to feel more natural? 'No,' says Stoltenberg, without hesitation. 'No,' Motzfeldt adds, with an apologetic laugh. 'Sorry about that.' 'But, you know, sometimes it's good to have these conversations,' Stoltenberg continues. 'After you make some music and you're getting ready to put it out into the world, it's nice to try to sit down and figure out what it is, or what happened here. Even if the conversations are a bit more vague or open-ended, I think it's a good reminder for us that… that's okay.' There's certainly a mysterious, open-ended quality to Smerz's music, although given the remarkable precision of their songwriting and production, 'vague' isn't necessarily the word I would use. On Big City Life, the duo flit deftly between genres—dream pop, glitchy electro, power ballads, shoegaze, even shades of trip-hop on album closer 'Easy'—blending all these textures into a sonic cocktail that is uniquely their own. And where their previous records have erred towards the cryptic (at least lyrically), on Big City Life, they're making room for big, overwhelming feelings: take the brazenly sensual yearning captured on the twinkling 'Big Dreams,' or the woozy rush of being head-over-heels in love so beautifully captured on lead single 'You Got Time and I Got Money,' the melody of which you could just as easily imagine being sung in a smoky 1920s Paris jazz club as at an underground club night in 2020s Berlin.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Goth pop star King Mala channels her inner 'desert witch' in new LP
King Mala wants to put it all out there. And she is — at a breakneck pace. The 26-year-old alt-pop singer released her (positively) nightmare-inducing debut album, "And You Who Drowned in the Grief of a Golden Thing," on May 2. Since then she's been on the road, touring along the West Coast from Vancouver to Los Angeles in support of Canadian singer Lights. After her recent appearance with Lights at the Roxy, King Mala will return to L.A. for her own headlining show at the Troubadour on June 26. When joining a Zoom call with The Times, King Mala, whose real name is Areli Castro, admitted to running on fumes. Having just driven from Portland, Ore., to Seattle in the wee hours of the morning, Castro was contending with a central theme of her album in real time: the chasm between her dreams and the limits of her corporeal form. "There's this struggle between the things you want and the things you are," said Castro. "I just love the idea of playing with grandeur and gods while still maintaining a very like human and gross and visceral vibe." Despite it all, she's maintained a sunny disposition — a stark departure from the moody and dramatic feel of singles like "Ode to a Black Hole." The macabre visuals from her current musical era evoke the same mystical energy as "True Detective" and 2024's surprise horror hit, "Longlegs." Born in the border town of El Paso to a Mexican father and Puerto Rican mother, the musician grew up attending Catholic church and listening to a lot of soul music, a genre she now describes as her "bread and butter." While she doesn't feel stereotypically Texan, Castro still feels spiritually yoked to El Paso. "El Paso is very, very non-Texas," Castro said. "When I go to the rest of Texas, I'm like, 'This isn't my Texas.' I grew up on [the] border — Southwestern vibes — and it's so different than Austin or Dallas. I feel like a desert witch." That desert witchiness emanates from the mesmerizing sonic loops and negative space deployed in her songs, which she pairs with "found" footage inspired by ghost hunting shows, ornate Catholic crosses and sandy landscapes captured in her music videos. Castro also spoke with The Times about how she mapped out her debut album and the life experiences that helped shape her gothic sensibilities. This interview has been edited and shortened for clarity. When it comes to the aesthetics of the album, it employs a lot of religious aspects. What was the intention with that?I love religious metaphor. I find it so grand and ancient and fun to use as a vehicle to tell a story. I'm very obsessed with the collective unconscious and how we keep telling the same stories over and over and over. So using stories that I really admire as the vehicle for this was really fun. There's just a power struggle in this album that I wanted to capture. And it felt like using the metaphor of God and humanity and of, "How do you exist as a powerful person, while also still maintaining your humanity?" That was the whole point of the album. Does that attraction to religion and these grand ideas come from your own habit or was it a thing from when you were growing up that influenced you?I grew up very Catholic, like cradle Catholic. My grandma always wanted us to go to Mass, so we adhered to that. But I was home schooled and the home school community is very Christian. And so I was sort of indoctrinated into that for a good amount of my formative years — middle school [and] early high school. It was very harmful and strange. It was very interesting to see how predatory the religion is. It's looking for kids who are lonely and scared and promising solace, which is nice, but then there's always a backhand that's like, "Oh, but you have to do this and you have to adhere to this and you have to follow our rules." Yeah, I've got a little bit of religious trauma to say the least. ... Once I was out of that cycle and community, I realized it's really all very similar to a cult. At what point does a cult transition into just a full religion? Is it just enough people believe it? I don't know. So that was a bunch of the stuff that I was thinking about as we made this. What are some media that you draw inspiration from?I'm a big, big, big horror girlie. So that was a big inspiration. I love that being a human is so gross and I feel like we don't realize that half the time because we're so used to it. I love body horror. I love [movies like] "The Substance" and "The Witch." I'm very obsessed with Robert Eggers and the way he makes beautiful, beautiful horror. Going into [the album] I wanted to do it the way we did humanity. I wanted it to be very gross and visceral and real and if we were going to do sexy, I wanted it to be very raw. And if we were going to do body horror, I wanted it to be very intentional and intense. Do you feel like the grossness of being human is kind of beautiful?I love it. We're so weird, especially our relationships to each other. It's so sweet and strange and we love to hold hands and touch our mouths together. It's so cute and gross and funny. I love thinking of us like we're aliens. Like if some other creature saw us, they'd be like, "What the f— are they doing?" It's really funny. Are there musical acts that you drew inspiration from for this album?For this record, we drew a lot of inspiration from "22, a Million" by Bon Iver, from Radiohead, from old school hip hop and rap. Kendrick Lamar and old Kanye West ... We had a big playlist. Phantogram was on there, The xx is on there, Portishead, Little Simz — she was a big inspo — Doechii, Rico Nasty. I was drawing from a bunch of different directions. [The production team] knew we had to create this sonic landscape before we started making the record. We wanted to do analog drums and hip-hop beats with reverbed-out, textural guitar, à la We just wanted it to feel alive and analog. What do you want people to get out of your live show?I want people to ascend and join the character. I want it to feel like a movie. I want these songs to live and breathe and sort of experience themselves through everyone in the audience. I think live shows create like such an energy between people. I want it to feel like we're going to church, like we're going on a journey together. That's the goal. Get our Latinx Files newsletter for stories that capture the complexity of our communities. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
