Raised on a diet of Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, and John Denver, Jeremy was steeped in the soaring harmonies and technical guitar playing of the masters. Later gravitating towards rock & roll and bluegrass, Dion developed his unique “Mile High Americana” sound of contemporary folk and acoustic rock that is engaging, passionate, and honest. With a present voice, versatile guitar skills, and the insight of a therapist, Dion is emerging as a formidable songwriter.
With three albums – and his fourth on the way to be released in 2021 – plus countless gigs under his belt, Dion has proven himself as an artist. Sharpe & Dion is Jeremy’s 4th independent studio release, being released under his personal label, Inner View Records. It is the first album of Dion’s to have two musicians – Dion himself and his long-time musical friend, Peter Sharpe. “This album was also different in that we tracked everything live, and did very little editing and overdubbing, doing our best to capture the authentic, raw, acoustic sound of us playing songs together in the living room” Dion states about the album. Dion believes that this work is his best work yet and captures where he is in life perfectly. It is able to show the twenty years of friendship and growth between Sharpe and Dion as they went on their journeys through life as therapists and musicians.
Jeremy Dion’s new single “Blowin’ Smoke” is out now via digital outlets.
Elyza Bleau’s newest single, “Apparition,” is taken from part of her upcoming EP, Haunted. The song is a very personal one for her that will entice you with every listen.
Echoing the vibes of U2, but with more edge, her music is about her family’s legacy and more broadly about one’s own legacy not being able to be who you want to be due to your family’s expectations or ideas of who you should be.
“I was really inspired by this need to trace our heritage in the zeitgeist and the expectations that families and cultures can have around people falling in line with it, even if your path is very different,” says Elyza. It’s about not fitting a mold that fits your ancestry and the hurdles that come with that.”
Elyza was basically in a personal lockdown before March of 2020. She had moved away from the city into a bungalow on the beach and was working 2 full-time jobs. That fierce independence led Elyza to show up to her guitar every day in January. After 4 years of struggling to write, she wrote 21 songs in 30 days. Planning to make an EP she had spent the last month and a half choosing the best ones to craft. And then…all hell broke loose on earth.
Working from home, she was able to keep focusing on the EP. One day at a time, one “you got this” at a time. The songs were feeling heavy, carrying all of the burdens that come with carrying a lifetime of anger and sadness thus far.
Suddenly, she had her guitar in hand and wrote a little ditty of a melody around those words. And then she picked more words from her diary and wove a tale around her actual story. It was rich with the feeling of travel in the 1930’s, of a girl still in college going on a trip to a city she lived in for over a decade to see family we didn’t know we had. There was sadness, longing, excitement, and thrills. All told in the words of a girl who was just along for the ride.
The song quickly replaced another as the 4th song on Haunted. But it changed the meaning of the whole EP and helped me to brighten the other 3 songs. Yes, we may carry around a heavy weight from our past, but we also carry around the laughter and silliness that lighten the load.
Cites and Sounds are a New Jersey based rock band, formed out of passion and love for music in the summer of 2020. Attached to artists such Audra McLaughlin, Nalani and Sarina, Boyz 2 Men, The Early November, Lauren Marsh, October Rose, Finding Westerly and many others – these 5 artists with many different influences joined up at the perfect time. Forming, writing and recording a full length album worth of material with Chris Badami (Portrait Recording Studios) all within the year, it will see the light of day later this Fall. We had the honor of speaking with the band regarding the making of their new video “Ghosts,” which you can dive into below.
Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically? It was just three of us that night. We went in the basement, plugged in, turned the PA on and the opening riff just happened to be the first thing I came up with and we went from there. We wrote it in about an hour. I was just mumbling melody ideas while we were writing it. I knew we had that upbeat anthem musically we wanted. So the next day, with the melody in mind, I sat down and wrote the chorus pretty much in real time. Once that chorus was done, we knew it was the first song we wanted everyone to hear from us.
What was the inspiration behind this video(visuals, storyline, etc.)?
The band had a great idea to do some throwback covers. It fit the song perfectly. The inspiration for the video of the single, “Ghosts” is one to showcase some of our favorite album covers but to also show creative ways to show your “voice” which is what inspired the track in itself. An anthem about being heard. If you feel people zone you out, don’t take your voice seriously, or don’t even hear you, there is always a way to express yourself to get someone to listen. This is our way.
What was the process of making this video?
Storyboarding the albums like doing a “photo shoot” was pretty fun. We wanted to get some of the details pretty close on these iconic albums. And you have to obviously have some live shots in a video too. We were trying to shoot them in a spot in Philly outside but it just didn’t work out. So we booked a rehearsal spot for the night to get these shots. It was a pretty cool day doing the album shots. We hung out in a basement, got some food and cocktails and played some dress up.
Gaming Music icon TheFatRat, popularly known for his immense online following of over 5.6 million YouTube subscribers and extremely popular songs like “Unity,” “Monody (feat. Laura Brehm),” and “Fly Away (feat. Anjulie),” which have over 800 million streams combined, has finally released his highly-anticipated debut album PARALLAX along with its final single, “Let Love Win.” The uplifting and hopeful single features the moving vocals of longtime collaborator, Juno award-winning and platinum-selling singer/songwriter Anjulie, popularlyknown for also collaborating with Lady Gaga, Diplo, Nicki Minaj, ZEDD, and many more. “Let Love Win” is the tenth and final song revealed from
TheFatRat’s debut album, PARALLAX, which is available now on all digital streaming platforms HERE.
Known for having his music sync-to-screen for many widely popular video games such as Dota 2 and Rocket League, German producer TheFatRat is the flagship musician for video games, tech and gaming culture. He’s the go-to artist for Esports brands like ESL and Dreamhack, and his sound, which Billboard Magazine has coined as “wildly energetic and genre-bending electro,” has earned him a massive legion of highly interactive online fans, over 2.2 billion streams on YouTube and Spotify, and over 5.6 million YouTube subscribers.
“Parallax is an effect that, simply spoken, describes how things look different depending on where we stand. The metaphorical meaning of parallax is one of the most fascinating things in life for me. Often we are not aware that the reality that we perceive is a result of the position that we look from,” TheFatRat continued, “We are not even aware that we are looking from a certain position. We think we see things as they are and then we are surprised when other people see them differently. The solution is not to insist on our perception but to take the position that we look from into account. The album is about how things change depending on how you look at them.”
“Let Love Win” is about the characters finding out that they fought against each other and the pain and love in this moment of realization. The realization that we sometimes fight against people we love and how much more sense it makes to be kind and bring love to the world instead of hate. Featuring the Chinese plucked string instrument, the Guzheng, which you can hear from the beginning through the entire song, with a string ensemble and some retro synthesizers, the album’s final single displays the culmination of TheFatRat’s artistry and an uplifting message.
Anjulie is a Juno award-winning, platinum-selling, Canadian, Guyanese, Indian, singer/songwriter, and producer from Toronto. She has written and collaborated with Diplo, Zedd, Kelly Clarkson, Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga and Natalia Lafourcade, Phyno Fino and Kshmr to name a few. Her music has been featured on HBO, ABC, NBC, and MTV, and she received an MTV Video Music Award Nomination for “Best Breakout Video of the Year”. She has 2.1 million monthly listeners on Spotify with American and international fans everywhere from Baghdad to Brazil. In 2021 her single “Where The Love Goes” had 42 million streams on Spotify alone, and currently, her song “Fly Away” with TheFatRat has over 250 million streams across platforms.
TheFatRat has been releasing one song every week from his debut album, PARALLAX, and hosting interactive Discord chats afterwards with collaborators and thousands of fans. “Let Love Win” is the tenth and final track the influential Gaming Music artist has unveiled. The artwork and lyrics from PARALLAX tell their own cohesive story filled with imaginative characters and fantasy settings that have been referenced in his past projects, with each single sharing new chapters of the story. This lore is a huge interest for his rabid fans, who speculate wildly on online forums about the meaning of each release and guess what’s coming next.
The album’s first single released July 9th was “Hiding In The Blue” featuring powerful vocals from Dance Pop singer-songwriter RIELL. The opener of his debut album was a continuation of the main character’s story from TheFatRat’s previous songs, “Close To The Sun” and “Stronger.” After experiencing many physical injuries and mental hardships, she retreats herself to her comfort zone and reflects on her past. “Hiding In The Blue” has already accumulated over 8 million streams across platforms, received National radio airplay on SiriusXM BPM, and received favorable reviews by publications like Flaunt Magazine, Pop Culturalist, and EDM Identity.
“If you’re at all in the gaming world, you’ve probably seen the name TheFatRat or heard his music.” – FLAUNT Magazine
The album’s second song, “Arcadia,” contrasts with the melancholic mood of the first track of the album as it is filled with cheerful tunes. As RIELL reminisces in “Hiding In The Blue ” about Arcadia being a place she once called home, it is no surprise that the track is more light and upbeat. RIELL returns to sing about Arcada being shaken by a war in “Pride & Fear,” the album’s slower-paced third song which demonstrates TheFatRat’s versatility and RIELL’s incredible vocals. The fourth offering, “Upwind,” is about saying goodbye to her love as he embarks on a journey to war and the sense of adventure he feels as he marches forward. “Our Song” picks up as the tranquility of Arcadia has been shaken by war and the partner of the protagonist has left her to fight, leaving her hoping that he will return safely. In the time since “Our Song,” after a mecha had destroyed the home of the protagonist, she boards her own mecha which is even bigger and stronger. She chases him down and gets into a fight, where both robots are destroyed.
Every song on PARALLAX is free to use on social media for creators and source material will be made public, true to TheFatRat’s ongoing tradition of freely dispensing his songs and their stems to help inspire the many dedicated content creators and empower their passionate projects. This forward-thinking approach has led to him having been featured in 25 million YouTube videos from a range of different content creators – accumulating over 30 billion unique views on the platform. Due to the success of these actions, he’s become a leader in the independent music community and an expert on how technology has changed the music business.
MIYAVI, the rock icon, released his 13th original album “Imaginary” today, on all digital music streaming services via Universal Music, for his 40th birthday. The new body of work is the first new full-length album since last year’s “Holy Nights”. The album consists of eleven original tracks that send listeners into a new universe, defying gravity and bending reality – just like the vibrant visuals that go along with the album.
MIYAVI explores a new realm in “Imaginary” with his unmistakable guitar sound that has helped him forge that cross-genre chemistry throughout his career. This new album combines modern pop subtleties and contemporary rock to show off his style, range, and unparalleled guitar skills. There is also a wide range of covers and collaborative tracks in the album, such as “New Gravity” and the title track “Imaginary” with two-time Grammy-winning pop singer Kimbra along with a derivative cover of POD’s “Youth of a Nation” featuring rock singer Troi Irons and a sensational cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” A memorable collaboration in the album lies with K-pop sensation Kang Daniel. Together they make an iconic duo and complement each other perfectly on the catchy single “Hush Hush.”
With the new album, MIYAVI said, “The world goes through inversion, so we are constantly having to use our imagination to see into the future. I am excited to finally share my album “Imaginary” with my fans. We live in a world where values and trends keep shifting rapidly at dazzling speeds. This is the proof that we are alive. My wish is for the music to resonate in this way.”
WATCH THE OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO FOR “NEW GRAVITY” HERE
Outside of music, MIYAVI is a multi-faceted talent working as an actor. Known for his riveting performance in the Angelina-Jolie-directed film “Unbroken”, as well as roles in Kong: Skull Island,” and “Maleficent 2”, He is also active as an actor, and his newly released Netflix movie, “Kate”, quickly became the most popular content in the streaming service in a number of territories/countries. He is also signed to Gucci as one of its ‘Friends of the House’, which made him the first-ever Japanese musician to appear in the brand’s official campaign. The coveted artist is also appearing as a coach on the new variety show “The Masked Singer” in Japan, now available for streaming on Amazon Prime.
“Imaginary” is set to continue evolving from his previous approaches, crossing genres and engaging a broad spectrum of listeners. The album is available in three different editions: Limited Edition A, Limited Edition B, and Regular Edition. A bonus DVD with edited video from his MIYAVI Virtual Livestream from last year is included in the exclusive versions.
MIYAVI celebrates his 40th birthday the day of the album’s release and will appear in a special birthday concert in Tokyo on September 14th. He has also announced a concert from the historic Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto titled, “MIYAVI Virtual Live 6.0 in 京都・清水寺 ‘MIYAVI in KIYOMIZU,’” a sequel to his “MIYAVI Virtual”, a series of streamed concerts that MIYAVI started in 2020. The concert will be streamed through multiple platforms. MIYAVI is the very first pop artist to perform a concert in the temple in its 1200-year-long history. He is entrusted to promote Japanese culture to the world with this performance, building a cultural bridge through music from East to West. Fans can watch the concert at 8pm September 26 (JST) on MIYAVI Official YouTube Channel and Japanese streaming platform CL.
On September 30, the multi-genre artist will embark on his 20-city Imaginary North American tour, for the first time in two years. The demand is so strong that a second performance for Chicago, on October 20, has already been added. Fans can buy tickets here, and follow MIYAVI on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok for more updates.
Imaginary Tracklist
New Gravity
Imaginary (feat. Kimbra)
Warrior
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Living In Fire
Hush Hush (feat. Kang Daniel)
Youth Of the Nation (feat. Troi Irons)
I Swear
Are You With Me?
Dance With Me
Super Hero
MIYAVI North American Tour 2021:
All dates, cities and venues below are subject to change.
Singer of Pharaoh’s Dream, David Nathan, wanted to share his love for the song “Sunny” by creating a cover that encapsulates the beauty of the original. Inspired by hit classics, David Nathan writes and records his own versions of songs that inspired him to be the musician he is today. There are only so many people who can honor great music with their own interpretations, and David was successful in creating something just as beautiful as the original. David and his producer Tyler McCrary sat together virtually and created an interpolation of Bobby’s hit single.
Tyler adds a tinge of reggae to the single in order to make it stand out in a way it hadn’t been tried before. Whereas Bobby’s single was very fast paced and incredibly jazzy, David takes his own personal approach to honor his favorite song. Slowing the song and adding extra minor chords with the piano makes the song feel much more personal and adds a level of emotion that didn’t exist in the original. David’s voice has a timeless quality that, paired with his instrumental choices, send listeners back to 40s and 50s jazz clubs. His tinge of blues in his voice stems from his greatest inspirations. Tyler and David also manipulated the vocal production and cadence of their version, separating themselves from the incredibly well known vocal variations used in the original.
David has impeccable capabilities as he was able to turn a jazzy pop hit single into something soulful and blue. Pharaoh’s Dream has kept “Sunny” shining bright and brought back some good memories by creating and releasing this amazing remake. David encapsulated the brand of Pharaoh’s Dream while being able to achieve his dream of covering one of his personal favorite songs. David’s influences allow him to appeal not only to some younger demographics who listen to this music, but to older generations who grew up listening to these very same artists. This remake sure was a “Sunny” interpretation of a beautiful hit song.
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