Interview: Parisian DJ/producer Zimmer continues to bring emotion to electronica with homage to dad

French DJ and producer Zimmer's music video for "Landing" shows the interior of a bland industrial-looking building in Pisa, Italy. It is here that a Scientific breakthrough proving the existence of gravitational waves occurred. It seems a rather dry subject especially from Zimmer who is best known...

Interview: illuminati hottie's Sarah Tudzin on sound engineering for 'Hamilton,' Barbra Streisand and 'Kiss Yr Frenemies' album

While the Grammys have a long way to go before more female producers and engineers come through in any critical mass and are recognized for their works, it is heartening to see young women producers such as LA-born Sarah Tudzin gradually rising the ranks. Not only has Tudzin worked behind the boards...

Interview: Fun Machine sets upbeat sound on Future Generations' sophomore effort

"Landscape" the title track from Future Generations' sophomore album is lively and sonically cartoonish in it's employment of the synthesizer. Much of the album - like latest single and video  "All The Same" - is infected with the same underwater warble bringing to mind Gorillaz and the sonic...

Interview: Jonathan Wilson sheds Laurel Canyon sound for expansive, cosmic vibe

Studio maven and North Carolina-transplant Jonathan Wilson moved to California about 17 years ago and in that time his name has become synonymous with the iconic Laurel Canyon 70s sound. In part due to the jam sessions at his Laurel Canyon studio and to his previous two albums, Gentle Spirit and...

Outside Lands 2018: Get there early for newcomers Jessie Reyez, Pale Waves and Grass Lands

Outside Lands returns to Golden Gate Park next week, Aug.10 to 12 for its eleventh installment with the high-drama vocals of Saturday’s headliner Florence & The Machine, on the heels of her High As Hope album. Following a string of mega-hits and his third consecutive No.1 album The Weeknd will...

Interview: Hannah Von Loon on cheeky Tanukichan moniker and working with Toro Y Moi on 'Sundays'

Days of the week have definite moods to them – Monday inspires dread. Wednesday the mid-week hump. Friday you’re in love! And why wouldn’t you be with happy hour and the weekend just around the corner?  Sundays the title of Bay Area artist Hannah Van Loon’s debut album - as Tanukichan - suggests the...

Interview: Warpaint's Theresa Wayman releases solo effort 'LoveLaws'

After three Warpaint full-length albums and several EPs, guitarist and vocalists Theresa Wayman felt like she was only just learning to make an album. Wanting the space to experiment and pursue her own ideas - away from the band that has defined her as an artist for almost 15 years - Wayman struck...

Interview: Brazilian Girls get together 10 years since their last album to make love

Brazilian Girls are not Brazilian and there’s three men and one woman. A decade since their Grammy-nominated third album New York City  was released, when the quartet felt it time to get back together, it had to be an album about love. Nine children, three countries and a sprawling amount of side...

Interview: GUM’s Jay Watson digs into ambiguity on new solo effort ‘The Underdog’

Any psych-rock band worth their name indulges in cosmic mind warps either thematically or through wandering melodies. Multi-instrumentalist Jay Watson's work, in the trinity of Australian psych-rock bands; Tame Impala, Pond and his solo effort GUM have always delved head first into space-age themes...

Interview: Carla Bruni returns after stint as France's First Lady with cover album 'French Touch'

In 2008, model and singer/songwriter Carla Bruni married the then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy and thankfully, did not give up her passion for songwriting. The once '90s supermodel had successfully parlayed her modeling career into music with her enchanting 2002 French album Quelqu'un M'a Dit...

Songs of Loss: Private tunes Inara George gifted to her dearest found on new album

Blessed with the talent of writing personal songs for family, friends, even strangers, all Inara George needs is a little time spent with you or some morsel of information about your life; and she can pen a custom-made ditty. Through the years she has presented these songs for grieving friends...

Interview: Overcoats break down their electro-folk sound

The re-emergence of a Dublin rave house scene and Celtic family band The Corrs may not seem likely bedfellows, but it's embedded in the electro-folk DNA, of New York duo Overcoats. The female songwriters Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell were freshman students at Wesleyan University when they first started...

Interview: Nick Mulvey on activist themes in 'Wake Up Now,' the poetry of Bjork and doing covers

British singer/songwriter Nick Mulvey is back with his sophomore Wake Up Now, an activist-themed album brimming with an infectious positivity that builds from his Mercury Prize-nominated 2014 debut First Mind. Mulvey first came to prominence as fusion jazz band Portico Quartet's hang drummer. The...

Interview: Molly Rankin of Canadian dream-pop band Alvvays talks retreating to her island

No man or woman is an island but after three years of intense touring and living in tight spaces, Alvvays frontwoman Molly Rankin had to seek wide open spaces and solitude to call upon her muses for the band's follow-up Antisocialities. The other band members, who similarly grew up on Nova Scotia's...

Interview: Trashcan Sinatras survive bankruptcy, obscurity and are back to celebrate their 30th anniversary

"Oh I like your poetry, but I hate your poems," is an unforgettable, if not prescient line off "Obscurity Knocks" by underrated Scottish band, Trashcan Sinatras. Released in 1990 during MTV's heyday, they are still making melodic guitar-pop and only last year, toured their very modern album, 2016's...

Stand by your woman: Jen Cloher on marriage rights and Courtney Barnett

“It’s handy when your wife is Courtney Barnett,” acknowledged Melbourne DIY stalwart Jen Cloher when congratulated on her latest album being played by NPR tastemaker, Bob Boilen. However, back home in Australia, Cloher is a respected musician in her own right. Her 2013 album In Blood Memory was...

Interview: Listen to Kasabian's sixth album 'For Crying Out Loud,' Serge Pizzorno tells us why

Every album bar one, of Leicester band Kasabian has reached Number One on the UK album charts. In 2014, they also won Best Album and Best Band at NME’s 2014 awards, and that summer proved themselves worthy Glastonbury headliners. Their sixth album, released earlier this year, knocked Ed Sheeran off...