Award-winning singer and songwriter Emm Gryner has a new single to share, imbued with the rhythms of the early 70s. “Burn The Boats” took inspiration from Gryner‘s desire to communicate the story of the birth of a new race of people and the woman who was the mother of this story. 

Written with Michael Holmes, this laid back yet mysterious yacht rock song is a contemporary retelling of the life of La Malinche, Dona Marina, a Nahua woman enslaved to Cortes in 1519. She would become both his guide and interpreter in Mexico, and ultimately gave birth to his son, Martin, who is considered one of the first Mestizos (people of mixed European and indigenous American ancestry).

We speak with Emm about “Burn the Boats,” which you can dive into below!

Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically? 

From co-writers Michael Holmes and Emm Gryner: ““Burn the Boats” takes place after those great outlaw/caper/escape songs of the later 70s and early 80s end. The running from the law, the man or the bad guys is done and it’s time to reflect, staring into the pacific on the other side of the border. We’re in Mexico now, and time’s slowed right down. But in this moment of reflection the hero isn’t the outlaw or the narrator of all those great tunes: it’s the woman who gave birth to it all. From beachside, Burn the Boats turns Cortes (and Cortez the Killer) inside out by making the man meaningless. Instead, La Malinche Doña Marina sings the songs of her people: burning the conquistador’s boats and finding freedom in the sun and the sea.”

What was the inspiration behind this video(visuals, storyline, etc.)? 

Co-writers Michael Holmes and Emm Gryner: “The inspiration for the visuals really goes back to the story of Dona Marina–the woman who, enslaved to Cortes, became both his guide and translator and the mother of his child, and ultimately an entire new people. The backdrop for all the visuals is an imagining of history from her perspective.”

From video director Frank Gryner: “For me, the challenge with making creative music videos is unifying the sound of the music with the message of the lyrics into an original visual concept that looks cool. With this song, the subject matter goes much deeper than the sound of music would have you believe. I think the trick was to depict aggressive actions at half speed in order to stay true to the narrative present in the lyrics, yet have them conform to the soft rock vibe at the same time.”

What was the process of making this video?

From video director Frank Gryner: “Everything (including Emm’s self-shot performance footage) was recorded at a high frame rate and slowed down to emphasize the drama of the situation. The water, the flapping of the sails – basically all the movement eventually got played back at half speed in the end. Everything except Emm was animated. The footage of her performance was embedded into the surface texture of the CGI boat sail which was configured to react to real world forces like wind and gravity. It’s like if your flat screen TV could move like fabric. I wanted it this way as opposed to having the footage look like it’s being projected onto the sail. Rendered short clips from the 3D software then got speed adjusted, synced with the original audio and composited with additional visual effects in the video editing program. Initially, a lot of time was spent getting the water to look that way that it does and also the movement of the sail as well. It was important to nail these aesthetics as the entire visual premise of the video relied so heavily on these things.” ᐧ

The new Romain Gutsy’s single “Frenchy Boy” which was released on December 17, is already a fan favorite. The song has been written and produced by Romain and Marc Bentel. It’s an folk release with a very organic sounding, a narrative based song which tells a story like: What if you were a Frenchy Boy and the expectations of you Amer- ican girlfriend were way above reason, and full of clichés… And what if yourself, you’d have interiorized all these clichés about Americans expectations and wrote a song about it? That’s what Frenchy Boy is, an anthem for all cliches and for all Frenchy boys of the world!

But above all that, this song is a must, and features of course Romain’s warm, raspy, distinctive and authentic voice, some nice accordion and a folksy production that wraps it all up

Frenchy Boy Music: Romain Gutsy / Marc Bentel

Lyrics: Romain Gutsy

Vocals: Romain Gutsy

Production: Marc Bentel – Romain Gutsy

Arrangement: Marc Bentel – Romain Gutsy

Mixing: Marc Bentel

Mastering: Marc Bentel

Romain Gutsy is a French-born singer-songwriter and a musician who started his career in the 90s, singing and playing accordion with French bands such as Les Affamés, or guitar in the Celtic band Daffy Plays Mandola, as well as playing with more famous artists such as the Grammy award winner alt-Rock band, Soul Asylum, or American singer, Calvin Russel.

After more than 20 years of musical semi-pause and traveling all over the world, he came back in 2020 with a solo album under the name of THE RED, Whatever Says the Clock, featuring songs composed of lyrics made of classical American and Irish poetry. It was followed in 2022 by a new album called When Leonard Met Dolly.

Marc Bentel is a South-African music professional, who moved to Florida, USA after having won multiple awards with bands he was part of. Marc produced and did the mixing and mastering of the single in his studio in Florida.

HOT FLOWERS is the beautiful meeting of two friends both self-taught and passionate about music. First of all, Arnaud the unleashed guitarist who sings and then Sandy who taps like a deaf on his drums. This crazy duo is part of the bubbling Bordeaux garage scene that will keep until the dawn of time a place apart. For more than twenty-seven years now, this atypical and inventive group has been relentlessly roaming the Bordeaux cellars, triggering general hysteria wherever it goes. Arnaud’s twisted riffs respond with loss and crash to Sandy’s virulent rhythm.

Their fifth album ‘Camera’ is garnering praises from around the globe. The album is recorded by Benjamin Charles and mastered by Cyrille Gachet in 2022. The cover was made by the artists Cyril Monteil and Jérôme d’Aviau.

You can discover this fine album in digital version on all music platforms or order via their Bandcamp. https://hotflowers.bandcamp.com‘

Happy listening!

The Phil Edwards Band are back in action with their epic new single “Baby.” The song brings together a range of elements to create a unique sound that you will find yourself head over heels for. You can hear the acoustic-driven guitar and warm soft vocals which allows an easy listening experience, while having the ability to lift the listener up. Although the song is about moving on from a relationship, it brings a positive spin to the experience.

Bill Fever is an independent British songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Kettering, Northamptonshire.

Bill Fever’s 3rd EP ‘III Weights’ was self-released on the 16th of December 2022. The 5-track EP was created in May 2022 as part of an Album Writing Club run by Brighton-based indie record label Lights & Lines. The challenge was to write and record an album or EP within the space of a month and this was the result. In July it was announced that the EP had won the Album Writing Club’s Judge’s Choice Award. The EP was written around the time of Mental Health Awareness week – Bill tackles the subject matters of anxiety, fear and depression. ‘Weights’ being a key idea/theme, looking at mental health being a weight that everyone has to carry.

‘I Could Be King’ the opening track to the new EP isn’t a commentary on the monarchy in the UK, but rather a look into the mindset of someone experiencing waves of doubts and fear about being worthy or good enough.

Heavily influenced by alternative guitar music of the 90’s and 00’s, Bill’s eclectic sound has been compared to QOTSA and Radiohead (New Music Saturday Podcast) with “a Jack White-esque freewheeling sound” (Northampton based blog New Boots Music) and songs such as ‘I Could Be King’ feature synthesizers and electronics “reminiscent of New Order and MGMT” (Marc Schuster, Abominations Blog) .

Having relocated from London to Kettering, his ambitions to form a new band in 2020 were thwarted by the pandemic. Deciding to carry on writing solo, he self-produced and recorded his debut 4-Track EP “Money Goes To Bloody Money” at his home studio in Northamptonshire. Bill sings and plays all instruments except drums, bringing in the remote talents of drummer Joe Montague.

Not afraid to approach big subject matters – there’s no escaping the politics in Bill’s music and he certainly doesn’t pull any punches with his first two EPs ‘Money Goes To Bloody Money’ & ‘A New Low’. BBC Radio Northampton Introducing DJ Kerrie Cosh said “I really love that about him as an artist, he often writes what he’s feeling about the political landscape… he doesn’t beat about the bush”. In August she made the song ‘Sleaze’ from his 2nd EP her Track of the Week saying “His instrumental skill is absolutely out of this world… that guitar riff alone has my heart”.

Last year the title song from his debut EP ‘Money Goes To Bloody Money’ opened the BBC Radio 6Music’s Introducing Mixtape and host Tom Robinson described it as “an amazing track” picking him as his Tip of the Week for local BBC Introducing shows.

Looking ahead into 2023, Bill is recruiting local musicians to take these songs to the stage and is working on what will become his debut album.

For more information head to billfever.co.uk

“Highways” is the latest song off of Astronaut Husband’s highly anticipated release, “Down the Road” which will see the light of day on January 27, 2023. It’s a 14 track album that looks fondly to the past, to warm summers spent catching frogs and swimming with friends. But what’s that lurking beneath the surface? It’s the inherent sadness in everything! Bittersweet. A final ode to childhood as we turn away and continue walking down the road. Astronaut Husband has been recording under the moniker for over 10 years now. All of his music is self-recorded. It’s acoustic driven, endearing bedroom type stuff. Patient and textural.

A bandcamp veteran, Alec Grefe, known as Astronaut Husband, has been steadily recording and releasing music since 2012. Through the years he has garnered over 10 million streams on Spotify, and also had a song featured in the film “Baked in Brooklyn”. He flew to LA to perform at the Crest Theatre for the premier. Alec writes, performs, and produces/records/mixes all of his music. Alec lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he can be found playing around the city with his other band, Haunter. At the moment, his biggest musical influences are Mazzy Star, Acetone, King Krule, and a ton of other stuff.

2023 is the year of Astronaut Husband and we can’t wait!

Fly into his world here:

https://astronauthusband.bandcamp.com/track/highways