Photo courtesy of Elina Pasok

As Plastic Barricades vocalist and guitarist Dan Kert began creating his upcoming album, We Stayed Indoors, he found himself using his music as a diary to vocalize what he called “the two most bizarre years of our collective lives.”

“Writing this album wasn’t an easy task, especially considering that creating new songs was always about being in the same room with other musicians and seeing where the jam leads us,” he said. “This time around all the songs were conceived in a solitary confinement, so there was definitely a lot of soul-searching before I could figure out what I want to say with this record and how to say it in the most expressive way.”

Kert admits that spending an excessive amount of time in his own company was a new concept for him, but it helped him realize that there is a certain amount of productiveness that can come from that.

This time around, he spent more time creating demos and perfecting them before reaching out to collaborators to record the final track. Although he misses the unpredictability that can come from a recording session, he finds this new approach just as rewarding.

Kert always tries to see where the songs take him, and this album was no exception. The first single to be released, “Lucid in the fall”, is the perfect look into what he says is his most introspective and most sincere album yet.

The song was inspired by the beginning of lockdown, where he saw so many people turn to online shopping as a way to relieve stress. It got him curious: What happens after we buy everything we’ve ever wanted?

“‘Lucid in the fall’ was an important song for me, because it was written as a reminder that even during the pandemic we cannot keep living out our consumerist dreams,” Kert said. “Mindless consumption is destroying our beautiful planet.”

He hopes that listeners are inspired by “Lucid in the fall” to live life to the fullest every day but to do so without wasting money and damaging the environment. The song is a reminder that change starts with one person, no matter what that change is.

“We Stayed Indoors is an album about hope in a seemingly hopeless world, about being connected to so many people online but feeling very alone,” Kert said. “Topics of consumerism, ecology, someone else’s dreams, courage and adversity also come up fairly often.”

With the album set to release in 2023, Plastic Barricades will continue to challenge themselves and their listeners to unpack how the last two years has affected the human race. Tackling these important subjects in their music is how conversations start, and they hope these conversations lead to change.

Brent Williams has always held a passion for storytelling, although the forms of storytelling have changed.

For nearly a decade, Williams was a dancer and learned that not only was his physical being an important part of dance, but so was song selection. By learning that importance early on, he was able to translate that to when he started releasing his own music.

“I’ve always loved music for its ability to connect people and the way it’s able to evoke such strong, emotional responses from those who feel connected to your music,” he said. “The idea that someone would feel seen, empowered or comforted by something I’ve written is a huge motivator behind why I make music today.”

His debut EP, Matter of the Heart, taught him an incredibly important lesson of taking his time when it came to the creation process. He admits that he gets so eager and excited about ideas and concepts that sometimes he can release music prematurely. This time around he wanted to avoid that, not only because he wanted to be patient with his music, but because he was in an entirely different environment that would force him to take his time.

As a model, Williams has been able to travel around the world. When he knew Germany was his next destination, he knew that was where he wanted to create more music.

“I made a promise to myself that I would start working on new music once I got there,” he said. “I knew recording in Europe was something a lot of pop stars did back in the 90s/early 2000s, so I wanted to take advantage of being in Germany and use it as an opportunity to really grow and challenge myself as an artist.”

He made a point throughout the recording process in Germany to take his time and produce a fully developed product that would make him proud. The first of those products is a song titled “The Fool”.

“The Fool” felt like a departure from everything Williams had previously released, and he sees this single as a reintroduction to himself as an artist.

“[Matter of the Heart] was incredibly heavy and sad for me during both the writing and recording process,” he said. “[‘The Fool’] was meant to showcase my growth as an artist, but also show a different side of me; a stronger side of me that wasn’t present on the EP.”

He worked alongside vocal producer and sound engineer Alexander Lübbe, who he discovered online and felt would make a great partner in the studio. Williams said that Lübbe challenged him vocally and gave him a different perspective on studio sessions.

“I think one of the biggest blessings of creating in Germany with Alex was that there weren't any preconceived ideas or restrictions around the music,” Williams said. “I would go into the studio with the song concept and allow it to naturally develop through trying whatever felt right for the record. No pressure or expectations surrounded the music I was making - which also incorporated a level of fun I hadn’t previously experienced while in the studio.”

There was never a perfect opportunity for Mother Mother lead vocalist Ryan Guldemond to release the solo music he had been sitting on since 2018. The band was and still is active, having just finished a European and North American tour, but there came a point when he knew he just had to release it.

Under the moniker GLDMTH (pronounced “gold-mouth”), Guldemond used a play on his last name to drop a self-titled, self-produced, 11-track album.

“I like what it connotes, GLDMTH,” he said. “So much of my life, my career, is based around the words I summon and choose to put out there.”

Despite having sat on these songs for a few years, Guldemond had no problem still connecting to them. He believes that a good song is eternally a good song, and while these 11 songs do not have an overtly thematic message, he intended for all of them to evoke feelings of wonderment and nostalgia.

“Quite often some of the early stuff is the best because that’s when you are falling in love with the craft,” he said. “There’s a real romance there, and there’s a certain naivety there too that I think births great music because you don’t know what you’re not supposed to do yet.”

GLDMTH is a deeply emotional experience from start to finish. Guldemond thinks that when people experience another person’s extreme vulnerability, it makes them feel vulnerable as well. That is what he intended with this album; to make listeners feel.

An example of that extreme vulnerability is “The Symphony”, which Guldemond said was one of the most rewarding and challenging songs to create.

“It is a fairly sad, personal song,” he said. “Even just the music itself, I think that’s the most tortured chord progression I’ve ever written. Working on it as long and tirelessly as I did always brought me back to that space; I would leave those sessions feeling pretty dark. But I can’t say I dislike that feeling. I quite enjoy being swept away in whatever strong emotion the music is conjuring, good or bad; it makes you feel alive.”

In addition to the music, GLDMTH is a melting pot of Guldemond’s favorite mediums. He wanted GLDMTH to be a space where music, photography, videography and poetry could coexist and compliment one another.

“It’s truly an art project that doesn’t have any physical deadline,” he said. “It’s just born from the wins of me and what I feel like doing on that given day.”

That given day can be as simple as taking a photo of nature while on a daily walk. It is a quietude that Guldemond adopted during the last two years, when he found himself refining his ability to listen deeply. He considers his music a “celebration for the miracle that is daily living and seeing framed mundanity in a profound lens.”

“When things are so hard, it’s almost like you’re more sensitive to beauty because you’re yearning for it more,” he continued. “I find in something like a pandemic, a flower never looks so beautiful because you need that beauty as something of an antidote to all the grimness around you.”

With a new piece of his soul laid out, Ryan Guldemond has given listeners an opportunity to find the vulnerability in themselves and appreciate all emotions. GLDMTH is about embracing art in any form, trying something new and not being afraid of failure or imperfection.

There were a few pivotal moments in my life that cemented how much I wanted to be a musician. I had been taking guitar lessons since about age 8 or 9 but I had my first taste of “success” at 11 years old, and boy was it intoxicating. I was the lead singer of my 6th grade band, The Keepers Of Peace, and somehow we were able to enter a local Battle of The Bands in Iowa City, where I was living at the time. We performed in front of a crowd of nearly 1,000 people and won second place among grown adults and professional bands. It was most likely the cuteness factor that led to our win (how do you crush the dreams of three 11-year-olds?) but it was the first time I ever felt like a “rockstar” and it made me want to chase this music dream forever.

Fast forward to my senior year of high school, where I was graduating from a public school in rural Vermont. Throughout my high school years, I’d played a lot of shows at my school auditorium and a few local events and venues, but never ventured out into the wider world. I got the opportunity to attend GRAMMY Camp, a camp run by the GRAMMY Foundation for kids interested in going into the music industry. While at GRAMMY Camp, I had the opportunity to perform at the GRAMMY Museum, meet legends like Ryan Seacrest and AJ McLean, and play at the historic El Rey Theater. Most importantly, I was around other people who all wanted a career in music, and it no longer felt like just a “fantasy”.

Finally, there was a turning point where my partner Greg and I realized we wanted to make music together. We had been dating for a year and were both singers but kept in our own lanes (I was doing the singer-songwriter thing and he was doing musical theater). On a whim we decided to host a cabaret, titled “You And Me (But Mostly Me)” at The Duplex in New York. The cabaret went over so well that we ended up doing it again in Greg’s hometown of Austin and later again for an off-Broadway series. We then happened to get a residency at the Nomo SoHo, where we had free reign to perform whatever we’d like for three hours every week. That allowed us to hone our craft and really learn how to vibe off each other. This eventually caught the eye of GRAMMY-winning producer Mr. Sonic, who signed us to his label and started producing what would turn into Fab The Duo's debut EP, Our Love Is Resistance.

Photo courtesy of Dana Gorab

For as long as I can remember, The Beatles have always been a part of my culture. I’ve always been disappointed not to be born during the 60s because I always loved this period for all that it brought for rock music.

My dad is a huge Beatles fan and he used to play their songs with the guitar and sing along. It is also with their songs that I started to learn English. At one point, I wanted to understand their lyrics (I am French) so I practiced my English with them! At 4 years old I was learning the piano, and I think that 4 years later I knew how to play “Let It Be” and “Hey Jude”. At 11 years old, when I learned how to play the guitar, I wanted to play “Blackbird” or the guitar riff of “Day Tripper”.

When I was about 13 years old, my dad offered me a ticket to go with him and see Paul McCartney live at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy (named Accor Arena nowadays) in Paris. It was a dream come true. When we arrived at the venue, the place was so crowded; many famous musicians and singers were in the audience (for example, Sting was there). Everyone was waiting for this epic performance and man, it was epic! 37 songs played! I was singing almost all the songs with him, not being able to sit down for more than two minutes on my chair because I was so involved in the show.

When he finished the first part with “Hey Jude” and I heard the entire crowd singing along, I just felt the tears coming. It was magic.

The very last song of the show, “The End”, was just a pure moment out of time and space. I felt so connected with his music and his performance; seeing him on stage just changed my perception of how I wanted to play music, and my vision of a band (he has really wonderful bandmates as well).

I saw him on stage one more time in the Stade de France 10 years later, and once again I was impressed by him. He was more than 70 years old, and he performed as if it was the first time he went on stage, with a smile on his face all along…

Southern-California based author and journalist Steve Baltin has lived a life most writers dream of. With bylines in Rolling Stone, Billboard, Playboy and more, he has had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to interview many music legends.

His latest book, Anthems We Love: 29 Iconic Artists On The Hit Songs That Shaped Our Lives, examines anthems from The Temptations to My Chemical Romance and answers the question: what transforms a song into an anthem?

Interviews with these artists reveal their creative processes, making the reader feel as though they were sitting in the room during a writing session or backstage at a show. While it offers a behind-the-scenes look at the songs, it mostly shares how the song grew in popularity and how fans made them personal. Songs are meant to transport someone back to a certain time - a wedding, a high school graduation, a first love - and reading about how these artists watched their songs grow into something beyond their imaginations is fascinating.

“If you’ve ever bounced along to TLC’s ‘Scrubs’ in your car on a girls’ night out, acted out a three-act play in your head to My Chemical Romance’s ‘The Black Parade,’ or swooned to Barry Manilow’s ‘Could It Be Magic,’ and wondered, How did these anthemic songs come to be? - join the club!” singer-songwriter Deborah Gibson wrote as praise for Anthems We Love. “Steve Baltin so brilliantly takes you deep into an insightful journey of these songs from inception to recording and beyond… So many fascinating artists and songs that are woven into the soundtrack of our lives in a new and unique way that will leave you hungry for a next edition. This book resonates with me as a songwriter, but more importantly, it hits home for the music fan that lives in all of us!”

In the foreword written by fellow journalist Cameron Crowe, he shares his belief that most great anthems start as a want to please everyone, and when that backfires, a song emerges that was meant for one person but instead resonates with the world. Having a song that means so much to someone is widely discussed, whether they are sharing the song with their friends or seeing the song performed live while standing next to a group of strangers, but hardly ever have the artists delved deep into what it was like for them to watch fans make those songs their own.

“I have done thousands of interviews over the years and one of the most common refrains, no matter how big the artist, is songs are like children,” Baltin said in a press release. “Anthems is what happens when those songs have grown up. All 29 of these songs have gone into the world and been a huge part of people’s lives, whether they’ve been played at weddings, funerals, births. And my favorite part of writing this book was hearing from the artists how they’ve been moved - and even shocked - by the way these songs have become part of the fabrics of listeners’ worlds in ways the artist could never have imagined. Anthems proves that when a song leaves the nest, it becomes the world’s.”

Photo courtesy of Fabian Di Corcia

It marks no surprise to family, friends, teachers or even enemies that I have chosen to pursue a career in music. As a kid, an early crop of red flags emerged as pigtailed performances as Baby Spice became a weekly meal of its own, to be served as an accompaniment to the roasted rack of lamb and garlic mashed potatoes of Sunday family dinner. 

In the superhero universe of A LA BRAVA, Latinas of different upbringings fight against female injustices.

The creator and founder of the series, Kayden Phoenix, comes from the film industry and has a background in screenwriting and directing. One of the first things she noticed in her field was the character generalizations that didn’t reflect her own background, and gave her the idea of wanting to bring a Latina superhero to the big screen.

As a third generation Chicana based in Los Angeles, her first real superhero was her mother. She was the inspiration behind the first in the series, Jalisco, named after the place her grandmother was born. This Mexican Latina superhero is a blade-wielding folklorico dancer that uses her culture as her weapon.

The second in the series, Santa, is also heavily influenced by her family. Inspired by her family members with military backgrounds, this SJW Latina superhero is a brawler that takes down the ICE detention centers.

Loquita, a Boriqua/Cubana Latina superhero, is a teen detective in the supernatural world. Loquita is an ode to Phoenix’s childhood memories of ghost stories told at family gatherings.

Ruca is a Chicana Latina vigilante dispensing justice. Her story pays homage to Phoenix’s hometown and the overplayed stereotypes of Boyle Heights, Los Angeles.

Bandita is the last in the series, who is a Dominican Latina, gun-slinging cowgirl based in modern-day New York.

For each story, a very real social justice issue is depicted. From femicide and government detention centers to suicide, human trafficking and domestic violence, Phoenix makes sure that Latinas are not only represented but heard.

“I hope that [readers] get a good story, because you are reading a book and learning about a new superhero,” she said. “And then also maybe to create change themselves; whether it’s the social justice issue that they’re learning about or just something in the community that they care about themselves.”

Although her main reasoning for creating this series was representation, she was informed during the middle of the series that A LA BRAVA is the first Latina superhero team in comic book history.

She wanted to make sure representation was found in all forms of the comics, including the designers. Several artists were a part of the story’s creations, from penciling and inking to coloring and lettering.

“I have so many amazing artists,” Phoenix said. “They’re all Latina artists. I’m so lucky I found them, all on Instagram and Twitter.”

After putting a call out online for Latinas artists to help a Latina writer create Latina superheroes, Phoenix received nearly 100 portfolios. Since then, she has been able to create a team of artists that specialize in all forms of illustration.

The importance of the A LA BRAVA series is much more than a typical superhero story. They tackle real-world problems with real-world solutions, and do so with a still-underrepresented community. This series is meant to spark conversation and bring forward a new kind of hero.

In what feels like another lifetime, Katie Earl-Hogan, Katy Rose and Lori Dorfman came together during a middle school musical theater camp. They have been performing together and separate for the better part of their lives and always kept in touch throughout their careers. When they found themselves together again in the midst of a global pandemic, there was only one thing to do: start a band.

One night, Dorfman saw Earl-Hogan standing on her balcony in a robe and immediately began to sing about it. Rose joined in while Earl-Hogan finished getting ready, and a few days later they all got together to hash it out. It turned into their debut single, “Me Time”.

While they had a potential single, they needed a band name. The Blushes was one that Dorfman had written in one of her notebooks and kept coming back to. They wanted a name that exuded authenticity and fit all of their personalities. They loved the interpretation of blushing cheeks, flushed skin; a feminine expectation of sweetness that then smashes that notion on the head.

“Especially as women in the music business and in the entertainment business, you do have to be tough but you can also be kind and supportive,” Earl-Hogan said. “Women don't have to be pitted against each other. You can be an empathetic woman but still have a boundary and be strong.”

“For us, self-care is punk,” Dorfman adds. “Caring for your needs is punk. Having your boundaries is punk as shit. Loving yourself is punk as fuck. That's the world that we create with each other, the three of us together, and that's also the world we want to bring people into and the message that we want to send.”

“Me Time” is a prime example of that message. On the surface, it is a cute song about applying face masks and enjoying a night in while wearing a comfortable robe. When the layers are peeled back, it encourages female empowerment. They want every woman to say what they need and not feel guilty about it.

“We really are interested in insourcing our authority,” Dorfman said. “We went through all of our careers where the authority is outside of ourselves. ‘Me Time’ really takes a lot of power back into our hands and insources our personal authority and our personal autonomy and our personal singular solitude as individual women.”

What is unique about “Me Time” and their upcoming singles is that the greater Los Angeles area has been hearing them live for the past year. Musicians do not typically get the opportunity to workshop their songs before recording them, but by saying yes to any show that came their way, The Blushes were able to build on their music and live performances at the same time.

They have also found a music scene of female and queer artists that are expressing themselves in an equally authentic way. Their first performances as The Blushes was very much trial and error, not only because they hadn’t performed like this before, but because they were all trying different instruments. Earl-Hogan had never played drums in a band. Rose had always been a guitar player, never a bass player. Dorfman had never played in a rock band. They were learning on the job, and while it was nerve wracking, they had an entire community supporting them from day one.

“This sense of camaraderie and support, which was so lacking in female communities for such a long time, is just so inspiring and so hopeful, especially after coming out of such a hard time,” Rose said.

Their support system, with each other and with their community, means so much to The Blushes. They are wildly encouraging, inspiring one another to be the best versions of themselves. If their debut single is any indication of what to expect from them, get ready for the latest girl power movement.