From Niagara, ON, Riley Michaels started making music at 8 years old after winning 1st place in a local singing competition. Today, the music Michaels makes is a combination of Pop and Adult Contemporary, with a range of influences.
Riley’s music evokes the vibe of driving down the highway with the roof of your car open, a day at the beach, or even a dance club. Other songs offer intimate feelings that audiences will connect with on a deeper level.
Following a string of singles through 2020 and 2021, Riley has just released a new EP inspired by themes of love, heartbreak, lust, and appreciation fused together with vintage, earthy musical tones.
The EP’s intimate, comforting focus track “Someone Like You” is about that special someone and your adoration for them.
American folk singer/songwriter Eliot Popkin releases his latest EP “Running”, composed of relatable stories about losing people and fighting for oneself. The EP contains two songs that depict two different stories. Eliot draws from past and present folk and country singers to influence his instrumentation, melody, and vocal range.
The first song on the EP is also the name of the EP, “Running”. The song is featured twice in the EP, once in its original form, and once in a more classical approach. “Running” begins with a sound clip of a train moving on the tracks and a voice that says “all aboard”. Eliot uses traditional folk framework to introduce his EP in a captivating way that also fits very well with the genre. The chorus of the song is catchy and relatable, as it describes the emotions behind running from a broken heart. “Running” is a song that encapsulates the deep pain that one can feel in heartbreak. Eliot draws influences from traditional folk singer Bob Dylan in his vocal variation. Listening to songs by both artists side to side, there is a similarity in the way they storytell and sing in rugged and intimate voices. “Running” is a darker set song that touches on many emotions that are often seen in folk music, but also something that is more difficult to sing about.
In contrast, Eliot’s third song on the EP takes a positive spin on life’s struggles. The third song, “Fighter”, has a more folk rock tone to it, differentiating from the traditional folk portrayed in “Running”. “Fighter” is about not giving up and getting through challenges in life without feeling like a victim to the struggle. The lyrics talk about empowering oneself and pushing along to achieve goals and desires no matter how difficult it may be. The vocal range of John Mayer resonates strongly with Eliot’s range and the two share a similar layout of instrumentation. Both incorporate a rock influence while keeping the lyrics in the folk genre. Along with Mayor, Eliot also resembles Ed Sheeran’s earlier music, which fuses folk and country with a little pop. “Fighter” is an uplifting song that blends a number of genres together and inspires fans to push through and achieve their goals.
Eliot’s “Running” EP ties together love and sadness through the storytelling of traditional stories such as heartbreak and pushing through challenges. Eliot has grown to reach his audience through a more personal approach and his lyrics as relatable as they are catchy. He breaks through the folk genre barrier with his instrumentation and musicality variation, giving his fans music that they will want to play over and over again.
Charleston, SC native Frank Hartman is all about fighting corruption and deceit. By day, he works as a personal injury lawyer, suing big corporations on behalf of the average American; by night, he writes scathing songs that eviscerate corrupt people in power as frontman of his band Honeypot. The very name “Honeypot”, borrowed from a type of cybersecurity program that attracts and deflects potential hackers, aptly fits a band whose songs and videos are sometimes shocking, often political, frequently irreverent (think WEEN), and never apologetic. Hartman, a lifelong student of classic rock and progressive rock icons like RUSH, Tool, and Alice in Chains, brings a uniquely Southern twang to the prog world. Honeypot’s fans, affectionately known as Honeypotheads, are prog nerds, film buffs, and comic book lovers. We spoke with Frank regarding the new video for “Shut Your Mouth” which you can dive into below!
Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically in this way?
I have an entertaining story on that one. As you know l love observing the peccadilloes of people. I heard the “shut your mouth or I’ll shut it for you” line from a friend. His drunk wife was giving him a hard time for his sarcasm as he tucked her into bed. She said it even though it was an empty threat.And I started thinking about cognitive dissonance. Making the listener anticipate one outcome and then showing the wife as the abuser, dark humor, I will grant you.
Add the fact that my friend looks strikingly like Chevy Chase and you can see where I am headed. So the opening scene and the subsequent one in which Chevy Case is asleep at the wheel of the car in the original National Lampoon’s Vacation are a given. I am a huge Prince fan and learned when Doves cry so the petals reference is covered. Homages to The Big Lebowski and The Naked Gun are appeals to generational humor that only Americans would get. My personal favorite is the Buffalo Bill scene ‘ concealer on my eye.“ My position is The Silence of the Lambs is one of the funniest dark comedies ever made. I am in the minority on this opinion.
2. What was the inspiration behind this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?
The inspiration is the paradox of the American Dream. From inception, you are told you are exceptional and there is an implied path everyone should take. And if you follow the path, then you achieve the ever elusive concept of Happiness. It equates accumulation of money and things with happiness. And yet, there was a 64% increase in the use of antidepressants between 1999 and 2014. Something doesn’t add up. No, I am not and have never been a member of the Socialist Party. But I do recognize there is a disconnect between the messaging and the outcome. I want the listener to identify with what I am saying and apply critical thinking about what is truly important in life.
3. What was the process of making this video?
Well, we had a green screen version that acted out the entire thing, but it was not good. So I took over the primary creative process and started thinking of cultural references reflecting my vision. It led me to gifs that best represented the emotion conveyed in each line. I have a very dry sense of humour, gallows humour. I have to spell it out in order for everyone to get that I am joking. We all go through the vicissitudes of life, acknowledging it, and then mocking it takes away some of the pain and the power that difficult moments in life pose. I choose laughter. Laughing hysterically can be another form of crying. Hell, a lot of people can laugh and cry at the same moment. Because it is existence that we all share and there is so much commonality in the human experience. An artist’s job is to find those common touchstones and help people to feel less alone.
The Stars of Disaster started playing together in February 2019, in Pittsburgh, but the songs started coming in 2014. Anthony Schiappa had made a go of it as an airline baggage handler in upstate New York, an academic in NYC, and an exile in Scandinavia. After returning to his Steubenville, OH, basement, trying to stave off the terrors of clock-punching and memory, he rediscovered his childhood love of making loud music.
“One Woman Man” is a story about a couple that isn’t going to make it. A lack of trust leads to isolation and heartbreak, despite caring for each other deeply. They go through scary times together, and while that can bring some people closer together, it isn’t always enough.
New album,In the Trough of the Wave, will be released on June 11, continuing a theme of loneliness; an urgent need to connect and an inability to do so.
Further The Lion is a rock n’ roll band from Hamilton, Ontario. Formed during their final year of high school in 2007, Brent Etherden (vocals/bass) and brothers Jordan (guitar) and Greg Kopoian (drums) have played across the country, sharing stages with artists like k-os and Yukon Blonde.
New single, “Never Be The Same,” was written over the course of eight years and takes influence from different parts of Etherden’s life and a variety of songwriting styles. Emotional and expressive, “Never Be The Same” reminds the listener that sometimes something profound can happen to you that changes you to your core… and it’s not always a negative thing.
Born and raised in Kazakhstan, Astana, Daneliya Tuleshova is a global phenomenon with a mature voice that’s far beyond her years and stops people in their tracks. She has won multiple vocal competitions and in 2019, she was a Top 6 Finalist on NBC’s hit show America’s Got Talent, raking in millions of YouTube views on YouTube, garnering national press attention, and even performing on stage alongside award-winning pop sensation Ava Max… and Tuleshova was only 13 years old.
Four years in the making, her debut single, “Like You Used To,” is a romantic, energetic and relatable number that came to fruition via Zoom (courtesy of the COVID-19 pandemic).
Modern Mystery 
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