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The Ramona Flowers formed in 2012 when Dave Betts (keys/guitar) met (singer) Steve Bird for the first time at a fancy dress party. The former was dressed as Freddie Mercury and the latter as a vacuum cleaner. Yes? and they recruited (drummer) Ed Gallimore after a girl Betts knew was stood up on a Tinder date by a “good-looking guy” who was also a professional drummer. The romance wasn’t to be, but Gallimore was soon drafted into the band’s line-up. This is all fact?

What is certainly true is Betts, Sam James (guitar) and Wayne Jones (bass) met Bird and Gallimore and The Ramona Flowers were born…

Having initially banded together in their shared search to find the sweet spot between rock and electronica, The Ramona Flowers have progressed through two albums – Dismantle And Rebuild (2014) and Part Time Spies (2016) – to their finely-honed third long-player, Strangers. Their most electronic and dancefloor-ready offering to date, its creation was overseen – as was its predecessor – by American, London-based producer Chris Zane (Passion Pit, Friendly Fires, St Lucia).

The last few years have seen The Ramona Flowers playing concerts around the world, making many new fans – including the singer of U2. When Bono heard his daughter playing Lust And Lies, the pulsing and atmospheric lead track from the band’s 2013 EP of the same name, it caught his ear. Bono contacted the band and subsequently recruited the song’s producer Andy Barlow (one half of electronic duo Lamb) to help in the making of the Irish super group’s latest album, Songs Of Experience.

As a statement of intent, the title track from Strangers sets the tone of The Ramona Flowers’ new approach. A nocturnal- sounding club track with a vocoder hookline, it finds Bird lyrically concerned with re-exploring the early passion of a relationship. “It’s about when you meet somebody and that first sort of whirlwind of how great it is,” says the singer. “It’s wanting to repeat it all again.”

For Strangers, The Ramona Flowers employed a new creative modus operandi of the collective members writing separately, using computers and synthesizers, before bringing the songs to the rest of the band in the studio to complete as a team. Hence the music’s more electronic focus.

Among the band’s more recent adventures are a memorable set at Glastonbury 2017 and a trip to Japan to play at the 2017 Fuji Rock Festival, where they were astounded to find themselves performing at the decidedly un-rock’n’roll time of 10.30AM to 5,000 avid fans. “They were singing along and knew all the words,” Bird marvels.

Three albums in, The Ramona Flowers deserve to be ranked up there with the contemporary artists and bands they most admire and feel an affinity with: Phoenix, M83, Everything Everything, Sampha, Wild Beasts. With Strangers, they surely will be, since they’re performing at peak level.
“I think this record is much more accessible to a wider audience,” says Sam James. “The sound of the band is big. I think we’ve been growing towards this over the last two records. This is the best album we’ve ever done.”

In queso didn’t know, Charles and Kaylie Caswell – the pear behind the Portland, Oregon-based outfit Berried Alive – will release their latest jam, “Melon-Choly,” on May 10, 2022. Alongside the release of the new track – which is soda-rn good you’ll turnip the volume and yell “holy crépe, this band isn’t forking around” – the husband and wife duo have announced that their sixth album will be released in 2022 and will push the boundaries of Berried Alive both sonicly and emotionally. “These songs represent a lot of different styles and genres of music,” the band admits, addressing the explosion of sound found on the new record. “We personally listen to a lot of different styles of music, and we like different things about each style, so we’ve incorporated some elements of our favorite styles into one sound.”

The results have been egg-splosive. CLASH kicked off the year, highlighting the band’s ability to blur the limes of genre using the lead single, “Sit There Like A Lemon,” stating it “melds together EDM, rock, metal, and vivid pop textures.” Zooming in on the band’s hope of normalizing difficult conversations by tackling the complexities of mental health, Wonderland confessed that the dark and triumphant track “Pearanoid,” the second released from the forthcoming LP, proves that “there is no darkness which Berried Alive cannot overcome.”

Today’s single, “Melon-Choly,” reinforces the recurring theme of the record – that nothing is im-popsicle if you refuse to cake your eye off the prize. You shrimply have to do whatever it takes to overcome the obstacles that may be in front of you. Using introspective lyrics, the song is told from the perspective of an imaginary rockstar and zooms in on the grueling life of spending extended periods away from home and the emotional toll of surviving another grinding tour. Like the previous two singles, it spotlights elements of depression, loneliness, anxiety, paranoia, and other symptoms that many people suffer through frequently. These themes mirror the experiences Charles and Kaylie encountered during their engagement and first year of their marriage. Craving a butter life for themselves, the couple refused to cave to the pear pressure to follow the standard industry blueprint. Ditching studio time and traditional tour routings, the duo decided to relish their time together.

Taking matters into their own hands has been the best path for Berried Alive to dill with the workload that comes with being a creator. The results have been considerable. As Charles writes, produces, mixes, and masters the outfit’s music, which has gathered nearly 50-melon streams globally, and spawned five studio albums featuring 30 pun-based singles, some of which have caught the attention of Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, Kaylie contributes lyrics and the occasional basslines, while creating and designing the band’s clothing brand and streetwear line. Their unique line includes wearable art like bomber jackets, a varsity jacket style sweater, sneakers, joggers, and hoodies, which all feature the band’s adorable strawberry and crossbones logo.

Like their music, which they’ve created with the intention of helping people feel connected and less alone in the world, they hope that by creating in a way that is accessible and impactful for the everyday person, they can provide some encourage-mint to help people choose to juice be themselves.

Synesthesia is a state of consciousness where visuals fill the mind as a person listens to music. This concept is central to the work of the enigmatic Boy Epic, the noir-pop artist, who creates music so vivid that it transcends sound. And if you’re not born with the cognitive pathway to experience this, Boy Epic—who sees his songs before he writes them—will gallantly usher you down that road himself.

Take the single, “Trust,” from his debut EP, Everyone’s Strange. The song opens with ominous whistling, not unlike that from Kill Bill, then explodes into a percussive anthem that plays off his velvety vocals. “Lyrically, I was trying to show a person who’s been hurt so much that you wouldn’t hurt them,” he says. “It’s just like, ‘Break down your walls.’” But that is only half the song’s story. It soundtracks his Sin City meets Fight Club mini-movie—shadowed in shades of white, red, and gunpowder gray—where he wins that love he fights hard for until it slips away.

His sleek, cinematic aesthetic has already amassed an organic-fan following in the form of Instagram and Twitter followers. The stark video for his wanton tribal-hymn “Fifty Shades” (inspired by Fifty Shades of Grey) has earned more than 12 million YouTube views. And the throbbing, mercurial “Scars,” an ode to Suicide Squad, most recently landed in the trailer for ABC’s Once Upon a Time. Not bad for an elusive, stylish provocateur who manifested Boy Epic out of Dallas, TX.

This is what we do know about Boy Epic. The name is seemingly arbitrary, lifted from a newspaper headline about a young boy’s accidental hot-air balloon adventure. Yet it also serves as an intriguing red herring to his unconventional childhood and the richly emotional work that resulted from it. “Boy Epic is my character,” he says.  “I can always change his life in my videos.  But there is always a lot of truth to the work I put into my character.”

His parents divorced when he was barely a year old, so he grew up in what he calls, “split worlds.” Bright ’80s synth-pop wafted through his mom’s house, willfully exorcising her personal and romantic hardships. In contrast, his father, a professional bowler, hung around a gritty crowd. “After bowling, they would go to the bar, play darts, and drink and smoke. Every time the Eagles would come on, they would sing along,” Boy Epic recalls. “I was in the back watching this, playing pool.” He was 13 years old.

His dad was less fatherly and more of a cool friend, taking the preteen to see revivals of films by directors such as Scorsese and Tarantino. Goodfellas, in particular, struck a chord. Says Boy Epic, “I wanted to be just like them. I mean, I didn’t want to murder people or sell drugs. I just wanted their lingo. I mimicked what they said, and it formed my accent. That’s why I don’t sound like I’m from Texas.”

After a health setback, his father’s spirit died. “He’s given up on life,” explains Boy Epic. “All the heartache my family has gone through—that has inspired me the most. I feel like I have a responsibility to people who listen to my music to talk about the dark feelings they may be feeling. Hopefully, they’ll get through them, too.”

Navigating through grim realities and the urge to surmount them became the theme of Everyone’s Strange. “It’s the Inception-Christopher Nolan dream within a dream within a dream concept.” For instance, “Wolf,” a triumph of both ethereal minimalism and contemplative R&B, is, he says, “about self-hate. Constantly wanting more and more. Accepting defeat.” The video is act 2 of the thrilling-then-bleak “Trust” story, an out-of-body vantage point of his comatose paramour.

“There is definitely a lot of truth to the work I put into my character,” he says. The three-story arc driving Everyone’s Strange recounts the impact he’s seen of drugs on people. The glitchy, seductive “3 AM,” a nod to the erotica of Eyes Wide Shut, completes the narrative. It has yet to be shot, but expect it to get mind-trippingly sci-fi in the way it mingles fact with fiction.

“I look at songs like movies. I think about storyboards, the climax—visualizing what my character might go through or who he might be going through it with,” he says of his songwriting process. “The movie works its way through my mind as I write lyrics.” Even his live show is filmic: Boy Epic, before a white screen, his band artfully in silhouette behind him.

Growing up, Boy Epic taught himself the guitar and the piano. “My aunt was the Fort Worth symphony director. When I was a kid, she’d sit me down on the piano bench next to her as she played. It was so mesmerizing,” he says. “Piano, to this day, remains my favorite instrument. Even though I don’t play it very well….” A shy teen, he dabbled in pop-punk and emo, but really identified with indie artists who were storytellers. “I wanted to write songs and put people in an emotional place where they could visualize their own movie with my lyrics.”

For Everyone’s Strange, Boy Epic collaborated with producer Jason Evigan (Maroon 5, Kehlani,) and Cutdown Trees (a.k.a. Christopher Shelton, who also plays synths in his band). No songwriting experience was the same. “Trust” began with a synth hook from Jason. “Wolf” was flushed out from a melody in Boy Epic’s head. And the EP’s fourth song, the industrial-funk slow jam “Kanye’s in My Head,” was born of its beat. “I thought, ‘This isn’t normal. What am I gonna write about? So I thought about my generation and how fucked up it is, but also how great it is,” he says. “Who’s the modern rock star? Kanye West has that ‘I don’t give a fuck’ attitude.”

The video is its own entity, an intermission of sorts from the EP’s “Trust-Wolf-3AM” trilogy. “It was very much a timepiece for me. The American flag represents how the world is falling apart. I spray-painted ‘Kanye’ over the flag because people are losing control,” he says. “When Kanye is in my head, I lose control.”

Only, in reality, Boy Epic rarely loses sight of the game. “I’m heavily involved in everything in the studio. I do not leave the room, ever,” he says. “I don’t like the idea of people writing songs for me, because I would lose who I am.” He even directs and edits his own videos, which he learned via YouTube tutorials. “Basically, I’m using my music videos as a resume until the day comes that I have time to audition for a movie,” he says. “I have a body of work now.”

As hands-on as Boy Epic can be, once his job is complete, he finds it deeply satisfying to set his work out into the ether for interpretation. And that is where synesthesia comes in. “Not everybody is going to listen to my music through my videos,” he says. “It’s important to me that when you hear a song, you can see something in your mind.”

This even applies to his mom, who initially saw darkness. “My music disturbed her at first. She used to ask me, ‘Why is everything you do so depressing? And I’d say, ‘Because there are a lot of depressed people in the world, and I’m trying to help them.’ But now she totally gets it. ‘I’m good, mom. If anything, this makes me normal.’ This is very therapeutic for me. I hope it is for others, too.”

Emily Keener is a seventeen-year-old singer/songwriter from Wakeman, OH. Since her exciting journey into the Top 12 on NBC’s The Voice, Emily has been writing and recording diligently in an effort to capture the energy of this most transformative year.

Emily started playing the guitar when she was 11 years old and began writing songs when she was almost 12. A natural curiosity and passion for music quickly got her performing frequently and writing constantly. Almost 6 years later, she has written over 100 original songs and released four EPs and two LPs. Her songs are distinctly original, and the ideas she manages to express in them belie a soul that seems to be much older than seventeen. Before training with renowned vocal coach, Joan Ellison and master guitarist, Tony Schaffer, Emily was entirely self-taught and thrived on the time she spent locked away with a guitar and a notebook.

With the guidance and support of her family and friends, fellow musicians, and many zealous music-lovers, she continued to grow in and experiment with her artistry. At 15, she recorded East of the Sun; an original EP backed by the amazing musicians of Norwalk, OH that once made up “The Womacks”. A year later, she suddenly found herself in front of millions of people on national television with her astonishingly well-received debut on Season 10 of The Voice. She had the honor of performing the songs of some of her greatest inspirations, including “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John, “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell, “Still Crazy After All These Years” by Paul Simon, and “Lilac Wine” by Jeff Buckley. After advancing to the Top 12, Emily arrived home with a newfound sense of self as she walked directly from the plane into the studio at Waveburner Recording. Now, a few months later, she is ready to unveil her latest work and prove that this year is just the beginning.

At the White House on a bill with Aretha Franklin; singing duets with Adam Levine and Celine Dion; showcased on a float at the Rose Bowl Parade and headlining massive festivals worldwide: Tessanne Chin’s supple, soulful voice and impressive inventory of credits are equally stellar.

Still, her greatest ambitions are all future tense. As she launches the next phase of a storied career she is writing and recording songs for her latest project, partnering in new businesses and product endorsements, and most of all, delivering her remarkable voice and charismatic star power to loyal audiences worldwide. “Every day I’m reminded that I am doing the right thing,” she notes “It’s a wonderful thing to travel the world doing what you love, and most of all to share the music.

This music flowed from multi-cultural ancestral bloodlines in Kingston, Jamaica as Tessanne grew up with two accomplished musicians in a home equipped with a recording studio. “I am blessed that they encouraged me,” Tessanne says. “It’s a hard business. They knew, and always showed support.” Leaving home at age 12, Tessanne lived in England and channeled the emotions of separation into songs.

Returning to Jamaica, she fronted the rock-reggae band Mile High and her musical education was uplifted when she joined Jimmy Cliff as a backup singer and toured the world with the reggae legend. “I learned so much,” she says of this experience. “He is such an incredible personality. No matter how big or how small the audience, I learned the importance of treating every performance the same. I learned to leave it all on the stage.”

Recording solo, Tessanne released a series of popular singles that gained attention both at home and with Caribbean audiences in the U.S. Her full-length debut, In Between Words was an introduction to a global audience.

With her televised triumph as the winner of Season 5 of the hit NBC show The Voice, the promise of Tessanne Chin was fulfilled. Live, onstage for millions of viewers worldwide, performing classic songs, becoming the first contestant to hit #1 on the iTunes chart not once but twice, and reaching #4 on the Billboard Heatseekers album charts, she enraptured an enormous audience and delivered her inaugural Republic Records release, Count On My Love.

Her last recent single, “Fire” embodied what she described as “woman power…a modern anthem.” Now working on with a select studio of first call producers, Tessanne is prepping a new project. The sultry “Love Suicide” reveals new sonic dimensions. “’Love Suicide’ represents a soulful, sexy but edgy side to me,” says Tessanne. “I love the concept of giving your being completely over to love and surrendering yourself to this emotion. I feel that everything from the production to the lyrics to the melody supports that feeling and paints that picture perfectly.”

In this phase of her evolution, songwriting is an essential element. “I have to be completely real with myself; more honest than with a diary. It’s therapy,” she says of the creative process. And in her lyrics, she delivers what she describes as, “My point of view, my interpretation, and the message that captures the emotion.”

In tandem with her two sisters, Tessanne has opened Blow by Blow, a full-service beauty salon in Jamaica, and with its success, envisions expanding to additional locations. “It’s a wonderful thing to see people walk in and then to leave feeling beautiful,” she says. She has also partnered with Bellami Hair Extensions. “In this age, you have to be multi-faceted, to put yourself out there in any way you can. Just as in performing: you have to feel good and you have to look good. The message is to embrace who and everything that you are, with or without makeup.”

For audiences who know Tessanne Chin through her live shows and her rich catalog of songs; who follow her on social media or who witnessed her remarkable ascension on a top-rated television show, she offers this message. “A lot has happened since The Voice. There is so much more to me than that. I want to reintroduce myself and say, ‘Hi – how are you doing?’ I want listeners to come on this journey with me.”

Levi Kreis is one of the most honest communicators you will find. He executes his craft with profound vulnerability, a soulfulness that leaves you feeling as though you’ve experienced something deeply personal. In every area of his expertise, Kreis has been awarded for his commitment to the highest quality of entertainment. However, what people value most about Levi is how he makes them feel. To Kreis, art is a real-life conversation that is healing as much as it is entertaining.

In theater circles, Kreis is known for originating the role of Jerry Lee Lewis in Broadway’s Tony-nominated musical Million Dollar Quartet. The role won Levi the 2010 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, a 2010 Outer Critics Circle Award, and a 2010 Drama League nomination. Kreis began workshopping the piece in 2004, also arranging music for the show. His performance demonstrates that even the nuttiest of comedic characters have a human longing, a vulnerability that endears us to their struggle, a truth that offers us hope. Kreis recalls, “I’ve always been a meaning maker. I see art as an opportunity to convey something deeper, something spiritual. When you touch an audience at this level, they remember it forever.”

Other notable stage credits include the Tony-nominated revival of Violet starring Sutton Foster, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, and the national tour of Rent. Kreis’ interest in new works has drawn him to a few theatrical developments such as One Red Flower with Emmy Award-Winning director Paris Barclay and Mozart L’Opéra Rock with Tony-nominated director Lonny Price. These works have appeared at The Kennedy Center, The Village Theater, The Goodman Theater, and the North Shore Music Theater.

In film, Levi is best known for his role as Fenton, Adam’s brother (Matthew McConaughey) in Bill Paxton’s directorial debut Frailty (2001). Levi began his acting career with film and has recently returned to screen with roles in The Divide (2016), The Storyteller (in pre-production) and A Very Sordid Wedding (in pre-production)

Surprisingly, acting was never Levi’s primary pursuit. Kreis is a singer-songwriter whose piano-pop recordings have been featured in key moments on network television shows including The Vampire Diaries, Sons of Anarchy, So You Think You Can Dance, Mob Wives, The Apprentice, Days Of Our Lives, The Young And The Restless, and several films. With four albums to date and a 2009 OutMusic Award for “Stained Glass Window”, the theme song for the Del Shores film Southern Baptist Sissies, Kreis has built a humble but loyal following that continues to expand the reach of his own label imprint Vision 9 Records. Levi is currently writing his 5th album and developing a stage show to accompany the new release.

In the beginning, a 6 year old Levi came home from kindergarten graduation after hearing Pomp & Circumstance and started playing it by ear on the piano with both hands. Soon Kreis was writing his own original classical compositions. His mother held a phone over the piano as Levi played for a professor at Vanderbilt’s Blair School Of Music. A freshman in high school, Levi was given a full scholarship to study piano and composition at Vanderbilt University under a special pre-college program. Upon graduating high school, his credits were transferred to Belmont University where he studied music business. Kreis recorded his first album at 12 years old and began a life of touring. As a young songwriter, Levi had his first Top 10 hit with “Timeless” recorded by the Christian group Selah. Kreis confesses that, to him, songwriting is therapy. Consequently, his lyrics give remarkable insight to the complexities of life and reveal profound emotional intelligence, a distinguishing quality you can expect from all of Levi’s work.

Originally from Ashland, Oregon, Hollens began singing after his mother forced him to join the choir at the age of 14. Little did he know that his participation in that class would cultivate his love for music and change his life forever. He went on to attend the University of Oregon where he co-founded the first collegiate a cappella group in Oregon, On The Rocks. Hollens graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Vocal performance, where he was classically trained as an opera singer. Upon his college graduation, Hollens traveled the world singing on cruise ships alongside his wife, Evynne. After their adventure abroad, he became increasingly involved with collegiate a cappella; including recording, producing, and judging a cappella competitions throughout the United States. While he continued to pursue music as a career, he largely remained behind the scenes.

During Peter’s adult life, it wasn’t until the unfortunate passing of his biggest fan, his father, that he was given some lasting encouragement. While fighting brain cancer in his ending stages of life, Peter’s father urged him to keep doing what he loved by sharing his music with the world. That was a turning point for Peter, who then began diligently pursuing his career in music in honor of his father. In 2010, he participated in NBC’s hit show, The Sing-Off, receiving acclaim from judges Shawn Stockman, Nicole Scherzinger and Ben Folds for solo performances. In 2011, he started his own YouTube channel, posting multi-tracked a cappella covers and music videos. He frequently collaborates on content with some of the internet’s biggest influencers. Hollens records and produces music from his studio in Eugene, Oregon, and has recorded for Sony and Epic Records as well.

After signing a record deal with Sony Records, he quickly learned that being on a label wasn’t the best route for him and bought himself out of their contract. Today, he continues creating entertaining content as an independent artist and is entirely self-managed. One Voice Productions was born out of Peter’s independence and freedom that he found after leaving Sony. To support his musical endeavors, he joined up with the newly founded crowdfunding site, Patreon, which he now advises. This platform truly is what allows Peter to create his art for a living while supporting his family. Peter is married to Evynne Hollens, founder of the premiere female a cappella group at the University of Oregon, Divisi. This group inspired the book, (and later blockbuster films) Pitch Perfect. Evynne has her own YouTube channel, posting music videos and occasionally collaborating with her husband. They currently have a son, Ashland James Hollens.