Toronto-based indie-pop artist goodheart captures the quiet ache of emotional in-betweens on her debut EP Blue and Other Colours – a self-produced five-track project that explores disconnection, heartbreak, longing, and self-reckoning through shimmering melodies and honest storytelling. With elements of indie-pop, folk, and alt-rock woven through its sound, the EP invites listeners to sit with sadness – not to wallow in it, but to understand it.
From the friction of fading friendships to the numbness of everyday apathy, Blue and Other Colours traces deeply personal experiences with a diaristic sensibility and cinematic edge. Whether it’s the drifting isolation of “Casey,” the quiet resentment of “Funeral,” or the dreamlike malaise of “Stuck in a Cloud,” goodheart doesn’t shy away from emotional complexity. Instead, she leans in to build lush, dynamic soundscapes that feel both intimate and expansive.
The focus track, “Silverspoon Sunday,” is one of the EP’s most biting and buoyant moments. With crisp drums, layered guitar work, and bright vocal delivery, it offers a sugar-coated critique of privilege and passivity. “It’s about comfort becoming a kind of cage,” says goodheart. “Some people are handed every opportunity and still feel stuck. They coast instead of confronting the real stuff.” Despite its polished surface, the structure of “Silverspoon Sunday” subtly shifts throughout, avoiding traditional pop repetition and instead offering a dynamic chord progression that mirrors the unease beneath its brightness. “I love songs that sneak heavier truths into something that feels fun. This one is a bitter pill with a sugar coating.”
Winnipeg singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Zach Riley wears his heart on his sleeve in his new single, “Your Touch,” a feel-good, guitar-driven pop-rock track that beams with gratitude, energy, and emotional clarity. A celebration of the people who keep us grounded, “Your Touch” captures what it means to feel safe in someone’s presence, even on your worst days.
Inspired by his wife, Zach taps into the raw beauty of relational intimacy with sentiments that feel both timeless and refreshingly personal. The song’s emotional anchor is matched by its sonic sparkle – a shimmering blend of pop and rock influences that channel the earnestness of The Band CAMINO and the hook-driven joy of The 1975.
A highlight on the track is the soaring guitar solo, performed by Zach’s bandmate Alec and marking the first recorded collaboration between the two. “I knew I wanted a guitar solo at the end, but I’m a pretty subpar guitarist,” Zach laughs. “So I asked Alec, and he instantly nailed it. It was exactly what I was hoping for.”
I just feel like “Your Touch” perfectly captures that feeling of having that person in your life that can help take the weight off your shoulders or make you feel whole again when you don’t feel like you’re enough. This song makes me feel really happy honestly. It might be cheesy to say that about your own song, but I remember listening to the full thing for the first time and I just had this big dumb smile on my face. Just a really fun song all around and I love the way it came together. – Zach Riley
After the intricate rhythms and sly wordplay of “Wrong Carolina,” Sourwood return with “When I’m Gone,” a bold departure in form and tone that underscores the power of simplicity. Built around a clean, classic verse-chorus-bridge structure, the song trades technical complexity for emotional clarity—cutting straight to the ache of one-sided closure.
“This song is simply about figuring out that it’s time to move on,” says frontman Lucas Last. “That you have to realize sometimes there’s no closure to be had—and that your experience was entirely one-sided.”
Written during a period of rapid, disorienting personal change, “When I’m Gone” confronts the quiet resignation that can follow emotional upheaval. “Circumstances beyond my control were pushing me into a new phase of life,” says Lucas. “I had to come to terms with the fact that you don’t always get closure on a chapter. Sometimes, things just… end.”
The title itself is never actually sung, but acts as the invisible hinge of a key lyric: Don’t think you’ll miss me. Lucas explains, “That line is delivered in such a matter-of-fact way, and the title feels like its unsaid other half. It’s the emotional subtext that frames the whole song.”
In contrast to Sourwood’s usual dynamic interplay and bluegrass flourishes, “When I’m Gone” is restrained and direct—showing a different kind of strength. “This one doesn’t have extended solos or odd time signatures,” Lucas notes. “It’s just a clear story with a straightforward message. We love complexity, but there’s a different kind of emotional power in something that feels raw and unvarnished.”
Ironically, that simplicity made it the hardest track to record. “We must’ve spent half a day on this one,” Lucas laughs. “It’s the least complex song in our catalogue, but that actually made it more difficult—because the performance had to carry the full weight of the song. We were constantly tempted to add more, but the power came from holding back.”
The track features a notable guest: Lucas’ wife, Aubrey Last, who contributes harmony vocals. “It’s not a duet, but she’s very much the other character in the song,” he says. “She lived through a lot of what inspired this track. She was right there with me when the ship was going down. So it felt only right to have her voice on it.”With “When I’m Gone,” Sourwood continues to expand their emotional and musical range—showing that the most stripped-back moments can hit just as hard as the most intricate.
Fresh off a string of high-profile shows and the release of their emotionally charged single “Threshold”, Portland, Maine’s Moments Of are proving they’re not just riding the emo revival wave. They are helping shape it.
With a sound that bridges early 2000’s emo and the grit of modern alternative rock, the band has quickly built a reputation for delivering high energy performances that stick with you.
In this exclusive interview, the band opens up about the creative process behind their “Threshold” Official Music Video – why they chose a performance driven concept over a narrative, how nostalgia for the late ’90s and early 2000’s shaped its aesthetic, and what it was like shooting under the intense glow (and heat) of vintage stage lighting:
1. Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically in this way?
We really thought long and hard about the direction we wanted to take as a band for the Threshold music video. The talk of building a narrative story behind the video was had but we really thought that due to the energy of the song and our timeline to get it done by that a high energy performance video would be best for Threshold. We also wanted to bring high quality, and a high energy performance video back to the scene as a cornerstone for our new music and sound. And when people see us live, we bring that same energy, so we wanted people anywhere in the world to be able to get a sense of that from Threshold.
2. What was the inspiration behind this new video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?
For us a lot of the inspiration comes from the late 90’s early 2000’s videos not just music videos but entertainment and tv in general. The warm feeling and soft focus bring in those themes that you’d see on tv back then and also plays on many techniques how soap operas were shot. Giving off that heaven like feeling. The set being well lit and showing the gear, flight cases, rigging around gives it that feeling of watching a band at a theater or opera house where you would see rigging, cases, amps in the background.
3. What was the process of making the video?
The making of Threshold was done in a soundstage environment where we had full control of the space. The decision was made to use older tungsten film and stage lights to really play into the theme we wanted and to be immersed in the set. Warm, cozy, heavenly, euphoric even and the focus would just be the band well-lit and slamming hard. We shot the video setup to takedown in about 5-6 hours. Of course, we did many takes of the video individually and full band during that window to get the shots we needed. It was challenging at times dealing with old school stage and film lights as they admit a crazy amount of heat, so staying hydrated was key and avoiding knocking over or brushing up against lights and stands because everything was hot enough to cook food on. But we think it was the right move once we saw the finished video! Threshold is a raw and basic take on a well-lit and shot performance music video that will be timeless and invoke feelings from a simpler era in music.
Los Angeles-based project MOTO SOLO returns with a compelling new single, “History Crept On Me,” continuing its evolution into richly layered, synth-forward territory. The track was co-produced by Michael Shuman of Queens of the Stone Age, who brings an added depth to the release, further highlighting MOTO SOLO’s cinematic sound and dark melodic leanings.
The song’s emotional complexity is matched by its origin. Frontman and multi-instrumentalist Bobby Tamkin shares, “Lyrically, History Crept on Me speaks to the quiet chaos within—a moment when you’re lost or unraveling, and someone from your past returns, just when you need them most. You’re happily surprised and relieved when they appear. After creating the music video, I realized another meaning: that we sometimes slip into our deepest fears, not realizing that all we ever needed was the presence of a friend to help snap us out.”
Tamkin’s creative history spans decades and genres. Before launching MOTO SOLO, he cut his teeth in the experimental underground, most notably as a member of Hovercraft—a band formed during Seattle’s grunge explosion that found itself opening for Foo Fighters and playing with The Melvins. As a young drummer, Tamkin absorbed the raw energy of the era, often finding himself in living room jams with members of Soundgarden and Mudhoney.
Back in Los Angeles, Tamkin became a fixture in the psych-rock circuit, drumming for acts like The Warlocks and crossing paths with players from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Beck’s touring crew. After years behind the kit, he took a step into songwriting and production, teaching himself piano and crafting what would become the sound of his former group Xu Xu Fang. That project garnered acclaim for its expansive, moody textures—earning premieres from Rolling Stone, nods from MOJO and The AV Club, and syncs in high-profile shows such as Gossip Girl and Bates Motel.
With MOTO SOLO, Tamkin fully claims center stage. “Xu Xu Fang was my band, but I never sang anything,” he says. “I’d write the music and lyrics, then hand the lyrics over to somebody else to sing. It was fun, but there was a disconnect. Felt like it was time to emerge from the curtain. It was the only musical challenge left.”
That leap began in earnest around 2023, when Tamkin began crafting songs with himself in mind as vocalist. He invited Shuman to contribute, initially just on bass, but their collaboration deepened—guitars, synths, arrangements, and co-production followed. With sessions later moving to 64 Sound in Highland Park and mixing helmed by GRAMMY winner Michael Harris, the sound of the project crystalized into something sonically rich and emotionally precise.
“History Crept On Me” follows recent singles like the Depeche Mode-inspired “There’s Another Way” and its Gui Boratto remix, along with the swirling “Celebration Sound.” While still anchored by driving synth lines and Tamkin’s resonant baritone, this new single adds a reflective and intimate tone that hints at what’s to come on the full-length album.
MOTO SOLO continues to push boundaries by blending post-punk atmospherics, synth-pop flair, and the depth of lived experience into something distinct—and “History Crept On Me” might be its most personal chapter yet.
After a string of visually striking and concept driven singles, Reeya Banerjee brings things home both literally and figuratively with the music video for “Upstate Rust,” the fourth and final release ahead of her upcoming album This Place set for release on August 22nd, 2025.
Filmed at Lorien Sound in Brooklyn, the video captures Banerjee and her band The Merseyside Darby in their natural habitat – laughing, sweating and absolutely living inside the music.
Unlike the stylized visuals of her previous singles, this video opts for raw honesty and full band energy, spotlighting the chemistry, connection and joy that fuel Banerjee’s live performances.
It’s a fitting choice for a track that closes the album with heart and clarity.
We sat down with Reeya to talk about the story behind the song, and the decision to film a stripped down performance.
1. Tell us the story of this song – why did you choose to visualize this song specifically in this way?
Upstate Rust is the closing track on my album This Place, and in many ways, it’s the emotional resolution.
It’s a song about leaving a place you’ve loved – not with regret, but with trust, love and a little bit of fear. It’s about grown-up decisions, emotional survival and believing that what you’ve built can last, even when the geography changes.
The three singles before this had quirky, stylized videos – animation, photo essays, rogue guerrilla no-permit filming in Grand Central.
With Upstate Rust, I wanted to do something totally different. I wanted to showcase my band, The Merseyside Darby, because this song feels like a full-band anthem. Even though they didn’t record it with me originally, they’ve learned it, owned it, and made it their own.
This video is a celebration of that live energy – of how much fun we have together in the room. It’s the first time we’re all on screen together, and it felt like the right way to bring this song to life.
2. What was the inspiration behind this new video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?
The inspiration was really simple: let’s just show the band being the band. Upstate Rust is a big, reverb-heavy, U2-flavored banger, and it’s also my favorite song on the record. We wanted to show what it actually feels like to play it together – no gimmicks, no heavy storyline, just real joy and connection.
We shot the video at Lorien Sound in Brooklyn, which is a studio run by my lead guitarist James Rubino and his business partners Austin Birdy and Jack Quigley. Our rehearsal space is the live room at the studio, and Jack also directed the video. We pumped the master track through the PA and performed it together thirteen times – close-ups of everyone, wide shots of the room, no lip-sync fakery, just full-out playing.
Jack’s footage captured our chemistry and the joy we feel making music together. Luke Folger, our drummer (also my creative partner, co-writer, and the producer and composer for the record) is a beast on drums and has a smile that could light up a room. He’s a full-on beam of sunshine.
There’s a moment where I’m singing along with Daria Klotz, my bass player, and we’re just in the moment together. I’ve known her for ten years – we’ve sung in harmony together in so many bar bands and performances and other contexts, and it was lovely to capture that shared history on camera.
Sam Levine is our rhythm guitarist and the newest member of the band. He’s incredibly talented and smart, and a bit shy – but by the end of the shoot, he was rocking out and singing along, and it was just so endearing to watch him come into his own.
My favorite part is in the final chorus where James and I are literally jumping up and down together. We’ve also known each other for ten years – he’s my ride-or-die best friend. It felt like having a dance party with my little brother. Neither of us are spring chickens – we both have bad knees – so it was probably a terrible idea, but we couldn’t resist. At one point, James’s hat flew off mid-jump and he kicked it toward Sam, who had to duck to avoid being beaned in the face. We could not stop laughing. I’m almost sad that moment didn’t make the final cut.
3. What was the process of making the video?
This was honestly one of the most fun and relaxed shoots I’ve ever done. We met at Lorien Sound, and Jack set up a click track for Luke so we could stay locked in with the master. Then we ran the song thirteen times – two close-up takes for each band member, and three full-room passes to capture the in-between moments and the group dynamic.
The goal wasn’t perfection – it was connection. We weren’t trying to make a slick, overly produced performance video – but that said, what Jack delivered is the most polished of the four videos I’ve made to support the singles from This Place.
We wanted to show what it actually feels like to rehearse this song: sweaty, joyful, slightly chaotic, and deeply connected.
Modern Mystery 
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