With her album of covers, Born in Time, now out, it seemed the perfect time to catch up with Racelle Garniez to find out about her influences, her start in music, travels and collaborations, and everything else that makes her one of the most eclectic, interesting and exciting music makers working today.

“It was like a family experience that was really new for me. Will (Smith) and Oli (Lipton) have been friends and collaborators for years and Oli and Staizsh (Rodrigues) are a couple, so there was a lot of love built in that I’ve been just lucky to stumble into.” – Karina Gill on the making of ‘Another Country’

“Staying up in my head is what I do to protect myself, but it never helps. Only allowing myself to feel the pain helps.” – Diana Darby

Futurebirds’ latest release, Far Out Country I & II, is the kind of album that inspires daydreams; their Americana rock weaves together alt-country, folk, indie, and jam band DNA into a sound that feels like an endless summer afternoon. The band recorded enough material for a double album, and while both records are available now on vinyl, the digital release is split in two with the second half arriving in September.

“We were different. That doesn’t mean it was perfect music because no, it was not, but it touched others, and it meant something to people.” – Anja Huwe on Xmal Deutschland

Nearly 30 years in, Aaron Perrino is still energized by the music he’s making with The Sheila Divine. In this conversation, he talks about the new album The Middle Ages, how the band’s current lineup is pushing him forward, and finding creative joy on the other side of a difficult year.

With a new album, Honky Tonk just out to mark 40 years in the game, I sat down with Dan Wheetman of Marley’s Ghost to find out more about the band’s long, rich, and rewarding sonic story.

Mark Scott grew up in Chillicothe, Ohio, and that small-town patience runs through every Villagerrr song; lowercase “c” country, unhurried and laidback, but with the undercurrent of a band that cut its teeth in Columbus dive bars. With Carousel out now on Winspear Records, we talked about local band bias, life on the road, and why a basement recording can sound like it had a real budget behind it.

With Co.LeGa’s “Digitally Modified,” a song built from the same technologies and advancements that it warns us about, it felt like the perfect time to sit down with Lechosław Gawroński and find out about the journey that got him to where we find him today and where it all goes next.

Ramsey Thornton has carved out a quietly distinct corner of indie-folk, built on fingerpicked guitar strung and played like a banjo, and lyrics that find meaning in the overlooked details of everyday American life. We traced the journey that got him there, from picking up drumsticks at four years old, to stumbling onto a banjo at eighteen, to the guitar-driven songwriting that culminates in his debut album, I Called It!

Ben Chapman is recently married, a first-time dad, and somehow, in the middle of all of it, he made a record that sounds like it’s been lived in for decades. Feet on Fire might be shelved in the Country section at record stores, but its soul runs closer to Southern rock, blues, funk and the classic rock he grew up on.

With her debut album, Freedom now out, I sat down with Margaret Hermant to find out about her classical training, her work with Echo Collective, solo projects, and what the future holds.

There’s a certain kind of record that doesn’t announce itself, it just settles in, tells its stories, and sticks around longer than you expected. Nowhere, NW, the debut from Hunter Morris and his band Mountain of Youth, is that kind of record: laidback, lived-in American rock that feels like it was made somewhere between a river bank and a back porch, by someone with nothing to prove and plenty to say.

“I bristle a bit at descriptions of ‘Feed Like Fishes’ as lo-fi or bedroom rock. Lo-fi to me is poorly recorded, sloppily played, or oddly mixed; sometimes done because of lack of skill/resources or sometimes just done on purpose for the aesthetic. I took great care in trying to craft the sound I wanted on that album.” – Marc Ostermeier

With a new album, Ocean Cabaret now out, it felt like the perfect time to catch up with GALVEZTON, aka Robert Kuhn, to find out about his life, where the songs come from, and what might be in store for him next.

The Sub*T origin story – two teenagers bonding over One Direction and The 1975 across opposite coasts, eventually forming a band despite having zero musical training – sounds almost too good to be true. Jade Alcantara and Grace Bennett prove it’s all real with How My Own Voice Sounds and sat down to talk about Courtney Love as a fairy rock mother, learning chords from Liz Phair songs, and why Ellie from Wolf Alice buying their merch means more than going viral.

Undefined by design, youbet’s self‑titled third album is one of 2026’s most engaging listens. Nick Llobet and Micah Prussack discuss experimentation, evolution, and keeping songs from going stale.

“I think we made it conscious decision early on to put most of our focus into practicing. We thought the time was probably better spent getting better at what we did and waiting to pick better shows to play.” – Travis Hawthorne

“Just getting the drums to sound right, I learned a lot just by trying different things like tuning differently and using different drumheads and kinds of sticks, things like that. All that develops through practicing and then thinking about what works live. Making a setlist and thinking about the order of songs to play and transitioning between them. So much fun!” – Eric Campbell

Gay Meat’s Blue Water is a complicated release. Karl Kuehn wrote the album while caring for his mom, Karen, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2018. In the three years Karl spent caring for his mom before she passed, the songwriter rode an emotional rollercoaster which is reflected in the nine songs on this album. This interview is more than just a discussion about a new album, it’s a therapeutic grief therapy session between two people who, unfortunately, have experienced tragic loss.

“There’s no doubt the subject matters are emotional subject matters that flow through all our lives. The arc from ‘All Change’ to ‘Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’ feels beautiful because I do feel that ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ represents fully where the band are now. But obviously ‘All Change’ was the album that was the spark, like catching lightning in a bottle. I feel very, very serene about the journey.” – John Power

Voxtrot is wrapping up a US tour right now supporting their superb ”Dreamers in Exile”. Speaking with Ramesh Srivastava (vocals, guitar, keys) pre-show in Phoenix, he’s revealed much more about the album, touring, and new music already in the pipeline.

Romeo Void frontwoman Debora Iyall discusses why the time was right to revisit the band with a new live album

“Our love for classic indie pop is foundational, but we’ve always seen it a just that – a foundation. As opposed to a straitjacket.” – Mikael Carlsson

“There isn’t a linear story, but there is a shared emotional trajectory. The album moves through different perspectives on hesitation, longing, and ultimately acceptance.” – Gustav Tranback

With a new album, Thunderbird Lodge, on the way, I sat down and caught up with The Flavor That Kills guitarist, singer, and lyricist Ryan Corcoran, to find out more about the band’s journey and the story behind the new album. 

“In our eyes, shoegaze is exactly that, the ambivalence between melancholy and heavy.” – Dennis Mielke

“The EP repeatedly circles around the aspect of time. The EP encourages self-reflection with reference to our present and our past.” – Oskar Middelhauve

What started as a songwriting exercise for four solo artists has turned into one of the more quietly exciting bands going right now (seriously, we’re not kitten around). Fantastic Cat’s third album, Cat Out of Hell, is warm, witty, and anthemic. Anthony D’Amato and Don DiLego explain how they keep pulling it off.

With a new album, What You Said, now out, I caught up with Myles Cochran to talk about his journey, physical and musical, the new album, and what drives his choice to make instrumental music.

With a career spanning Little Red Rocket, Azure Ray, and eight solo albums, Maria Taylor has never been one to stand still. Her latest record, Story’s End, is the sound of an artist at the peak of her powers, turning major life changes into one of the most compelling albums of her career.

“ I rarely overthink what I write. The only thing that matters to me is what’s in my mind at the moment I sit down to write lyrics for a specific song. The process is almost always the same: I listen to a dictaphone demo of the track and start with a phrase or a word that might have been sung, then build an idea around it.” – Erica Ashleson

“Experimentation, mixing with other genres is not uncommon in indie music (Yo la Tengo being a great example), which is already a really broad genre. I suppose we’re still going to try new things, to evolve as musicians but it will probably still sound indie.” – Guillaume Siracusa

“I probably did make an effort to consider the sound of my vocals in a way that I haven’t done before, given that I’ve never considered the way I sing before this record. I also think that perhaps the style of the songs and the way they sound impacts the way that the vocals come across, as well as the lyrics themselves.” – Lande Hekt

Is Burlington, Vermont the next hot music scene? With Greg Freeman and Lily Seabird already gaining attention, Robber Robber feels poised to be next. The band’s sophomore release, Two Wheels Move the Soul, is a dynamic mix of paranoid, anxious energy and pop‑leaning warmth, anchored by inviting vocals. Nina Cates and Zack James share thoughts on their local scene, how they create music, and the songs that soundtrack moments in their lives.

After a six-year break, Robert Francis finds a silver lining in the devastating L.A. wildfires of early 2025, channeling the disaster into new music. Recording with soot-damaged analog synths donated by his sister, Francis has woven new textures into his indie-folk sound and the result is unlike anything he’s made before.

“Trust is such one of my favorite parts of the band. It improves every element of the band from touring to recording. It’s extremely freeing and exciting while writing, you never know where an idea is going to come from or how it will evolve.” – Lewis Maynard

““Perhaps ‘Secret Love (Concealed in a Drawing of a Boy),’ is a good example of something like that. I’m in my composed mode in the verses but in the choruses I’m singing in a way I haven’t before and I felt very vulnerable doing that.” – Florence Shaw

Between co-owning a NYC bar and recording with friends in his downtime, Michael Ian Cummings has found contentment. His debut full-length under his own name reflects exactly that, a mature, settled listen from a songwriter who’s traded the major label circuit for something more personal.

With the single “Hometown” dropping, I caught up with Ben E Davis to talk about being that American Boy in London, how he got started in music, the inspiration for this single, and where things go next.

Honest, unflinching, stream-of-consciousness songwriting defines Sluice’s third album, Companion, an Americana-leaning snapshot of daily life in North Carolina. Singer Justin Morris discusses his origins, lyrical inspirations, and getting into trouble while listening to Simon & Garfunkel in college.

“ I think now we try to give the songs a sense of evolution. I’m not against using distortion, we still use it, but on this record, we wanted to control it and give it presence only in the parts of the song where we really felt it made sense, not just use it for the sake of using it. It’s more about using distortion in service of the song, so that it actually means something.” – RJ Sinclair

“Schrammelig originally came from a review of a chaotic but great gig in Hamburg, saying we were “shrammelig-er” than Beth’s other bands. Google translated it as “crappier” which made it even funnier, though it actually refers to a raw, unrefined classical music…” – Shaun Charman

“My vocal delivery doesn’t have anything to do with Medway or Glasgow or else I’d be singing with a Glaswegian accent, which would be nice! I’d love to read an interview where you ask Billy Childish these exact questions; that would be a hoot!” – Beth Arzy

“I’m a great believer in the less I know, the more original my ideas will be. There are too many rules and regulations telling you how to play a chord, how to write a song, what amp or effect to use to get a certain sound. I find my choice of sound creation to be completely random and open to circumstance.” – Brian Futter

It’s been a whirlwind couple of years for Chicago’s romantic indie-pop outfit Brigitte Calls Me Baby. Just two years after releasing their debut, The Future Is Our Way Out, and sharing stages with the likes of Fontaines D.C., Morrissey, and The Last Dinner Party, the band returns with the magnificent Irreversible. It’s the soundtrack to an imaginary ’80s high school movie that includes a dramatic prom finale where the on-again/off-again couple finally reunites and rediscovers love.

Liam Creamer is as fueled by the recording process as he is by the writing. His debut 6-song EP, under the moniker Ken Park, captures fleeting moments rather than a singular narrative. The record spans a vast sonic range, moving from the fuzzy shoegaze of “Maybe Delete” to the haunting, acoustic-driven “Sleep Paralysis,” which sits at the intersection of Simon & Garfunkel and Elliott Smith.

“I never set out deliberately to write in a particular genre – I don’t do pastiche. I don’t wake up thinking, “Today I’m going to write a song in the style of George Brassens.” But it’s usually clear from very early on (my songwriting process almost always starts with a phrase or line of words and music that arrive together), what the overall sound of the song is going to be, and what sort of arrangement it needs.” – Jessica Griffin

On their latest album Werewolf, The Brook & The Bluff trade studio polish for live energy. Channeling the classic rock influence of Tom Petty, CCR, The Eagles and Little Feat, these ten songs capture the unmistakable intimacy of a band playing together in one room, in real time.

“The scary thing came when I had to play it to people because until now, it’s what’s been in my head. Once you put it out into the public arena and if you get laughed at it’s all on you. Whereas if Ride put stuff out and it gets laughed at, it’s the four of us. So, it was quite nervy.” – Steve Queralt

Spread across four cities and multiple time zones, Yumi Zouma have sharpened their sound into something bolder and more guitar-driven on No Love Lost to Kindness. Josh Burgess and Charlie Ryder discuss tour prep, the band’s evolution, and incorporating more guitars on the band’s newest release.

“I did actually spend years wishing we had done it the more standard way, but we didn’t and I have now made my peace with it; there is nothing wrong with these records and, yes, they do have a certain quality and charm for having been done in this quite fractured way with all the different production approaches.” – Emma Anderson

With a new single, “Something Different,” just dropped, I sat down with M. Spano to find out about his roots, his style, and his plans for where everything is heading.

While American Seams carries the hallmarks of bluegrass, Rose’s Pawn Shop makes the genre remarkably palatable by infusing it with a cinematic, folk-rock edge. It’s an album shaped by Paul Givant’s eclectic roots, ranging from Iron Maiden to Paul Simon, proving that “bluegrass-adjacent” music can offer far more than just tradition.

With a sound steeped in ’90s alt-rock, grunge, and shoegaze, MX Lonely’s new album, All Monsters, could be the release that pushes Julia’s War Records into a wider spotlight. In this conversation, Rae Haas and Jake Harms talk about the band’s influences, their onstage versus offstage personalities, the role of record labels in 2026, and the songs that inspire memories.

“He is so in me now but what drew me to him, even when I was 12, I remember looking at the records, flipping them over and it always said, ‘Produced, arranged, composed, and performed by Prince.’ Even when I was that young, I knew this was how I wanted to make music, and I wasn’t even a musician yet! I was well on my way with karaoke and I had a hockey stick that was my guitar.

“ – Jace Lasek