Tyla has released a salacious new single ‘Water‘, via Fax and Epic Records on July 28, 2023. The South African artist’s track quickly gained huge traction thanks to a popular TikTok “dance challenge”. ‘Water‘ has propelled Tyla into the record books as the youngest-ever South African artist, and the first solo South African artist in over 50 years, to land an entry onto the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song’s success has grown throughout the world, blossoming to reach the #1 spot in New Zealand, as well as securing a firm position within the Top Ten hits in several countries, including Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK, UAE, Philippines, Ireland, and Sweden.
With its blistering success, the track garnered a live performance on NBC’s popular late night ‘Tonight Show’ with Jimmy Fallon. The young artist from Johannesburg is showing no signs of slowing down and we cannot wait for more.
The innovative US-based singer-songwriter, producer and filmmaker omyügen (moniker of Michael X. Schallert) has unveiled a new single titled ‘Dark Corner’, released on November 3rd, 2023 via his label Omyügen Records. In 2016, omyügen began to produce under the alias Juse before rebranding to his current moniker, producing tracks that include his vocals, blending pop, electronic, and a multitude of other genres. Sponsored by the Wyoming Art Council, omyügen has worked as a producer for rap artist Gunnr and had his music featured on UKTalk Radio top 10 charts for Feb ‘22.‘Dark Corner’ was mixed by Sean Dorrian, who worked on a number one billboard song with Breaking Benjamin, and mastered by Chris Athens, who has worked with the likes of Drake, Kodak Black, Hollywood Undead and Joji, to name a few.
‘Dark Corner’ tells a story of the isolation and pain that a person struggling with anxiety is subjected to. It begins as a piano ballad, tender yet tense, and unexpectedly ignites with the introduction of a gritty trap beat & bass as omyügen’s glitchy, effects-soaked vocals float hazily over the fray. Omyügen’s voice is smoky and husky, suitably dark for the song’s melancholic lyrics and charged with deep emotion.
omyügen commented on the track: “My song, Dark Corner, is about the life of an introvert with anxiety, basically. I wrote the song when I was back home from college for the summer. It’s my first ever song to get professionally mixed and mastered, so that’s kinda cool.”
Irish Indie-Pop rockers The Valmonts have an entrancing new EP, Living In A Paranoid Trance out now. Coming to you from Dublin, with a sound influenced by New Radicals and INXS, The Valmonts bring a quirky edge and raw power to the indie-pop world. Bringing to mind the effortless, fun delivery of The Kooks with a saccharine grit similar to The Vaccines. The EP’s featured single ‘Cry & Get A Little Drunk’, was quickly picked up by Notion Magazine, as well as being added to GoldenPlecs ‘Irish Songs You Need To Hear This Week’. With airplay on over 50 international radio stations and sold out performances in Ireland, The Valmonts are set to take over the indie-pop world. Darragh Whyte (vocals, guitar), Keith Whyte (drums), Cathal Sweeney (guitar), and Tymek Kocurkiewicz (bass) answered some questions about their distinct sensibility for pop hooks, laid over zany melodic riffs.
Walk us through your creative process?
The creative process is something that can always take you by surprise. Sometimes you can be messing around with a sound for weeks. Somedays it all comes together within minutes. It’s that constant dedication that’ll bring out your best performances. Having a space to be creative is super important for us as well as a band. As independent artists there’s a lot of hats that you need to wear so it’s important to kind of separate the analytical brain from the creative.
Who are your biggest artistic influences?
Biggest ones for the band would be acts like New Radicals, INXS and even AC/DC. It’s one of those questions that you almost feel bad answering because you’re never fully satisfied with the answer you give.
What would you like to work with if you weren’t musicians?
We’d be footin’ turf if it wasn’t gonna be music.
What’s one piece of gear you can’t live without? What equipment are you using?
Not necessarily gear but we all can’t live without Cathal. He’s the brains when it comes to all the technical stuff behind the band. Without him we’d be so lost. Some of us can’t even plug in a guitar lead without it going completely wrong. (Not looking at you Darragh)
Tell us something unrelated to music. What are your hobbies?
We all seem to be into our hikes and just going away into nature. Nothing clears the head better than being surrounded by massive hills or a forest. It’s either that or sitting down on a couch and throwing on some GTA San Andreas hahaha.
If you could meet one performer/artist who would it be?
It would be pretty dope to meet Little Simz. Totally different world musically compared to what we’re doing but we just have so much appreciation for what she does. Also meeting boygenius would probably result in a well of tears.
What does the future hold for you as an artist?
We’re already thinking of what we’re gonna release next. We’ve plenty of music we’re currently working on. Some of it is already finished. We’ve had the tunes from “Living In A Paranoid Trance” with us for ages so we can’t wait to show you guys what’s gonna come next.
The Burma have returned with a stunning full length album titled Crazy Dreams & Cruel Realities, released on the 6th of October 2023 via their own label The Burma Music Group. Having received support from The Rolling Stone India, CLASH Magazine, NOTION Magazine, Hot Press, Atwood Magazine, and Medium.com/Pop Off, the trio has also earned spins on RTÉ 2FM with Dan Hegarty as well as RTÉ Radio 1. Their single ‘Holiday’ has already premiered and received support from EARMILK, and the boys have earned support slots for artists such as The Academic and The Strypes, while simultaneously gaining extensive airplay across Ireland, the UK, and the USA. Read our interview with their drummer Cian Doherty below.
Walk us through your creative process?
The songs always starts with either Peter (guitar) or Tony (vocals). One of them will come up with the initial idea and send some sort of a demo to the rest of us and it goes from there. Sometimes the demos can be full arrangements of a song, and other times they can be just a voice note with chords and a melody or one single instrument part, it varies. We do the majority of our work on our own at home, recording and writing parts etc. and then we send in a recording of it into our group chat and let the others sit with it for a while. We make adjustments from there. We wouldn’t really be the type of band to jam for hours in practice. There’s usually a plan for each rehearsal and we go in and get it done with parts that have been worked on and written at home.
Who are your biggest artistic influences?
The Smiths, Tame Impala, The Strokes and The Weekend.
What instruments do you play?
TonyO Donovan is the singer, PeterPiggott is the guitar player and CianDoherty is our drummer.
What would you like to work with if you weren’t a musician?
I (Cian) would be working in the business side of the music industry as either an artist manager or tour manager.
Whats one piece of gear you can’t live without? What equipment are you using?
The Roland SPD-SX. We use some tracks for our live shows for extra synths and processed vocals etc. so we have the whole show built around the use of the SPD-SX. I am in control of the tracks from the drums so there’s a lot that goes on surrounding that and making sure it runs smoothly. Peter records each track himself and looks after the audio for each one and makes sure it’s show ready. We’re always updating and trying to improve them.
Tell us something unrelated to music. What are your hobbies?
We’re pretty boring. Music pretty much dominates our life.
If you could meet one performer/artist who would it be?
