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Talkhouse

Brian Fennell is a self-taught producer, programmer and engineer as well as guitarist, percussionist and classically trained pianist with deep roots in the Pacific Northwest. SYML, Welsh for &#8220;simple&#8221; and pronounced &#8220;sim-muhl,&#8221; is Fennell’s solo project after departing from the Seattle indie-rock band Barcelona, which he started shortly after college and toured with for over a decade. He shared his self-titled debut in 2019 with the now Platinum-certified single “Where’s My Love” and the wordless EP You Knew It Was Me in November 2020. His new EP DIM is out now.

Brian Fennell

Music

On Grieving Someone Before They’re Gone

Inspired by the honest writing and timeless melodies of American greats such as Hank Williams Sr. and Joni Mitchell, Esther Rose’s songwriting has been called “The happiest saddest music.” Her 2017 debut, This Time Last Night, caught fire as her listeners tuned-in to a storied chronology of this soulful, heart-worn artist. Her latest record, Safe to Run, is out April 21, 2023 on New West Records.
(Photo Credit: Rett Rogers)

Esther Rose

Esther Rose Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

Annie Blackman has been writing her way into and out of heartache since adolescence. The 22-year-old singer-songwriter from Montclair, New Jersey, makes droll yet stirringly vulnerable music to bridge the gap between the head and the heart and untangle what it means to want. A compulsive archivist, Blackman draws inspiration from her own diaries, schoolwork marginalia, and the hallowed grounds of the Notes App on her iPhone. Loving, liking, and longing inform Blackman’s lore. With measured vocals and hypnotic production, Blackman faithfully leads us through her world of faded dorm room furniture and pensive walks-home.
(Photo Credit: Daniel Dorsa)

Annie Blackman

Annie Blackman Raises Unanswerable Questions

As an active paramedic, firefighter, and veteran of the war in Afghanistan, Vision Video leader Dusty Gannon has seen more horror in real life than in the classic movies he draws inspiration from. When not saving lives on the front line, Dusty dons torn fishnets, combat boots and makeup to play post-punk that recalls the genre’s heyday when the lines between goth and pop blurred to create some of the underground’s most beloved acts such as The Cure, The
Smiths, and Joy Division. But hidden within Vision Video’s catchy hooks and danceable beats is a nostalgic yet desperate message exploring the darker undertones of our existence. At its core, Vision Video’s debut album, Inked In Red, looks inward to understand the effects of war and the global pandemic. Dusty’s experiences in service have imparted an authentic gravitas to the music, revealing a cautionary tale of unhinged mental illness born of trauma.
(Photo Credit: Olivia Mead)

Vision Video

The Cure Soundtracked Dusty Gannon’s Resignation From the Army

Sam Goblin currently lives in Tallahassee, FL and plays music with Mister Goblin and Deady. He hopes to never, ever, ever become a music writer.

Sam Goblin

Des Ark Did It First

Mesmeric and kaleidoscopic, shimmering with electrified unease, Jilian Medford’s new Show Me How You Disappear is both an exercise in self-forgiveness and an eventual understanding of unresolved trauma. Medford’s third record as IAN SWEET unfolds at an acute juncture in her life, charting from a mental health crisis to an intensive healing process and what comes after. How do you control the thoughts that control you? What does it mean to get better? What does it mean to have a relationship with yourself?
(Photo Credit: Lucy Sandler)

IAN SWEET

The Emotional Freedom Technique, Therapy, and Creativity

Personal Space is a conundrum: indie without a scene, prog disdaining complexity, a dad band without dads. Since they released their debut EP, The Early Universe Was Entirely Opaque, in 2014, the band has been a work in progress, perennially under review. For their official debut, Sam Rosenthal and Henry Koehler joined forces with Alex Silva and Jesse Chevan, recently of Brooklyn smoothcore band Face of Man, to release 2016’s Ecstatic Burbs on Tiny Engines. Ecstatic Burbs showcased the band’s “eccentro-pop” sound and range of influences, from experimental post-punk like the Dismemberment Plan to the baroque pop of The Zombies, and earned the band praise from the Village Voice, Stereogum, and Brooklyn Vegan.
A Lifetime of Leisure, the band’s second LP release, and its first for Good Eye, showcases the members’ development, musically and personally, since Ecstatic Burbs was released. Where Ecstatic Burbs dealt with reconciling the saccharine surreality of a suburban upbringing with the stark realities of life after college, A Lifetime of Leisure finds Personal Space negotiating more thematically complex terrain. The world has gotten a lot darker in the intervening years, and the grooves have followed suit. Like Steely Dan with less glitz, or a mordant Pinback, the 10 tracks on ALOL find the band fretting over downward mobility, preoccupied with ethically sourcing their groceries, and hoping, against hope, that humanity can still find its way to a very chill, socialist utopia.

Personal Space

Celebrating 20 Years of India.Arie’s Acoustic Soul

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An artist of many disciplines, Alex Somers takes inspiration from all walks of life. His studies in music took him from Boston (Berklee) to Reykjavík (Iceland Academy of the Arts), where he became involved with Sigur Rós. With the famed band, Somers’s role included not just producer but designer as well with his contributions to artwork for albums such as Takk… Alongside frontman Jónsi, he formed duo Jónsi &amp; Alex, who released two albums Riceboy Sleeps (2009) and Lost &amp; Found (2019). As a producer, Alex has lent his talents to works by Julianna Barwick, Gyða Valtýsdóttir, Damien Rice, Amiina, Sin Fang, and Briana Marela. In the decade between Riceboy… and his official debut albums, Somers expanded his audio expertise to film. As a composer, he’s contributed soundtracks for Miss Americana(the Taylor Swift documentary), Honey Boy, Captain Fantastic, the How To Train Your Dragon Trilogy, Aloha, tv shows Black Mirror (“Hang the DJ”) and WGN’s Manhattan, and composed alongside legendary composers such as Danny Elfman (Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far) and the late Jóhann Jóhannsson. 2021 marks the first time he channels his talents into a project solely his own, a chance to express himself while simultaneously sharing all he’s learned from his partnerships, friendships, and wide-ranging interests.
(Photo Credit: Bella Howard)
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Alex Somers

Alex Somers on His Sibling Musical Careers

Israel Nash’s new album, Topaz, was recorded over the course of about a year in the Quonset hut studio he built about 600 feet from his house in the Texas Hill Country. While musician friends from nearby Austin contributed to the project, Topaz marks the first album Nash has recorded mostly on his own, both taking his time and relishing his newfound access to immediacy, punching the red button moments after an idea hit. The resulting Topaz is a triumphant rock-and-roll experiment, full of fat horns, gospel choruses, swagger, hope, and pain. The meaty rock foundation with touches of psychedelia and skylark folk that fans have come to love are still here, now with a soulful heft that nods to Muscle Shoals and Memphis. Political and personal, Topaz is moody and vast, cohesive and compelling.
(Photo Credit: Chad Wadsworth)

Israel Nash

Sutherland Springs: Any Small Town in Texas

Adam Schatz has recently released the improvised album Civil Engineering Vol. 1 and the Landlady album Make Up / Lost Time. See him on tour this summer, tickets and info at <a href="http://linktr.ee/landladyland" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://linktr.ee/landladyland&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1780425624327000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3vXy-qQUGj-lKK5bDfgzP-">linktr.ee/landladyland</a>.
(Photo Credit: Sasha Arutyunova.)

Adam Schatz

How To Write Your Own Bio

Perhaps no other instrument in the traditional music of Japan is as easily recognizable as the shakuhachi; an end-blown, bamboo flute. Originally played by itinerant monks as a form of meditation, it has endured centuries of change throughout Japan’s history. For six generations, the Araki family has shepherded this tradition under the name of Kodō. Named for his great-great grandfather, Hanzaburō made his professional debut in 1988 in Japan only four months after his first lesson from his father. In 2009, the name Kodō was bestowed upon him by his father to become the sixth in his family’s lineage to bear this title. This legacy continues to be the most influential in the genre, offering an unbroken connection to the roots of this haunting music.   In the midst of a catastrophic year for the performing arts, there was a silver lining: Araki was able to take possession of an extremely rare flute made by his great-great-grandfather. The unexpected reunification with a shakuhachi made by his namesake, the isolation of the pandemic, and over 30 years in the music industry, created an apt circumstance for a recording to honor the flute, his father, and grandfathers.   In January of 2021, he released an album titled Hankyō (Reverberation) with both traditional and more contemporary compositions.

Hanz Araki

I Don’t Ask People To Use My Full Name

Adam Sliwinski has built a dynamic career of creative collaboration as percussionist, pianist, conductor, teacher, and writer. He specializes in bringing composers, performers, and other artists together to create exciting new work. A member of the ensemble Sō Percussion since 2002, Adam has performed at venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall, The Bonnaroo Festival, Disney Concert Hall with the LA Philharmonic, and everything in between. Sō Percussion has also toured extensively around the world, including multiple featured performances at the Barbican Centre in London, and tours to France, Germany, The Netherlands, South America, Australia, and Russia.
(Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez)

music essay