This segment features artists who have submitted their tracks/videos to She Makes Music. If you would like to be featured here then please send an e-mail to [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you!
Bumsy and the Moochers
Bumsy and the Moochers are a ska punk band from the Chicago suburbs. They’ve been together since 2012 playing shows across the Midwest. They are currently writing and recording their third album. Their new song ‘Youth’ “is different from anything we've ever done. It's acoustic while featuring horns and violin. It's a song about the loss of innocence, remembering the good times of your youth, and knowing that dreams are possible,” say the band.
Youth by Bumsy and The Moochers
Lily Talmers
Lily Talmers is a folk musician from the state of Michigan. She'll be releasing her first full length album, Remember Me as Holy, on February 11. Her songwriting is inspired mostly by the greats of the 60's folk revival, and her lulling voice is juxtaposed by fresh and cutting lyricism. The first single from the LP, ‘The Push and Pull of It,’ is about reconciliation within oneself. It dances around the pain of memory and tragedy of love that endures despite conflict.
Q-Benjamin
Q-Benjamin is a Juno award winner. Also known as “Q” or “QB”, she is a Canadian singer, songwriter and rapper of mixed South Asian and Jamaican descent now residing in Edmonton, Alberta. After signing to a major Canadian label when she was only 18, she has since taken the independent route. At age 8, Q began writing short stories and poetry as a means of expression, which would later lead to an affinity for songwriting and a way to empower herself and others through music. She credits her environment and life experience as having inspired her core values centred on faith, self awareness and being a woman of principle. She sets out to garner the attention of an audience like herself- with high lyrical standards that appreciate craftsmanship, artistic expression, and creativity in music. “‘New Ting’ reflects my Jamaican roots as a bi-racial/ second generation Canadian (I’m also half south Asian!),” explains Q. “It’s my first released track with an island/dancehall vibe, while staying true to my usual hints of R&B and rap inflections.”
Q-Benjamin · New Ting
Upper Reality
Upper Reality (they/them) is a producer, singer, instrumentalist based out of LA. A Dallas native, their electro-soul sound is a sensual museum full of pieces from Dallas neo-soul keys and synths, Cape Town house-jazzy percussion, LA indie grooves and sample flips, and flourishes of inspiration from artists running the gamut from Sade, to the Doors, to Roy Ayers, to Sango and more. "’I Can’ is the free-love anthem of my EP Body Hi which dropped January 15,” says the artist. “The EP also comes with a short film that brings a visual to my journey toward self actualization and a re-imagining of reality.”
Body Hi by Upper Reality
The Barettas
The Barettas have been resurrected and are back from the grave. Their new album, out now, is full of pump you up, getting ready to go out, running in the woods music. ‘Touché’ was inspired by skipping to the Hamilton bar, Che. “’I might be sick in the head, but I'm not crazy’. We both have our own reasons for loving this lyric,” say the duo. “Lauren sees it as a, "This is me, take me as I am," no fucks given attitude. Katie sees it as something that everyone can relate to regarding one's mental health, as in it's okay to be yourself…even if people think you're nuts.”
Madame So
After a prolific 2020, which saw her release the singles ‘Generation Y’, ‘You Say’ and ‘Who Are We to Judge?’, Madame So returns with a new tune in ‘REAL FRIENDS’. As an adept of relatable thematics, with this new song, in an era and dragging pandemic context, in which the world and relationships of any kind are being reassessed by each and every one, Madame So muses on the core foundation of friendship.
Real Friends by Madame So
Paragon Cause
Paragon Cause is a songwriting, production and musical duo from Ottawa, Canada. Dutch Orange and Cape Breton Green combine to bring their love of Hip-hop, classical piano, 80's synthesizers and 50's guitars. Kirwan and Marnie vonKheul bring their sibling rivalry to create a sound that is both haunting and familiar. Songs about truth and life. Life will start to come back to us. ‘Making Up For Lost Time’ is an optimistic song with a sense of longing, a glimmer of hope through the long fog of isolation, whether it be from an old relationship or this last year. The band explain: “When you close your eyes after looking at someone you love, the image sits on your retina and slowly fades away, but the memory remains in your head, distorted. It's about time rushing forward and never able to catch up to your future plans. Lost opportunities and warning your past not to make the same mistakes, but feeling it is inevitable.” ‘Making Up For Lost Time’ is the lead single from their full-length album Autopilot due in 2022, produced by The Raveonettes' Sune Rose Wagner.
PARAGⴲN CAUSE · Making Up For Lost Time
MELO
Meló (Melanie Percy) has shared the release of her debut single, ‘Counting Sheep’. An ode to her beginnings as a songwriter, this track reflects on the acoustic, a cappella and folk roots of her past. Fascinated by the story-telling aspects of these genres, Meló began using music as an outlet for her emotions. Part of her future EP Youthless, this song is the first of a multitude of singles focused on the exploration of genre-fluid music and conceptualization of the issues that come with growing up too quickly. Discussing the different facets of coping through mental illness, manipulation and abuse, with the underlying desire to go back to a simpler, care-free time. Meló has a distinctive style of vocals, sometimes compared to the likes of Hayley Williams. There is a type of angst and darkness to her voice, that compliments her lyrical content well. She creates a space of vulnerability within her music, saying “I use music as a coping mechanism and hope that my listeners can do the same through mine.”
MELÓ. · Counting Sheep