Anna Volpe has been called Annie for years. It started with her friend group in high school, and when one of them found out Volpe means fox in Italian, they told her it would be a perfect stage name.

She stumbled across the name again almost two years ago, in the middle of experimenting with a new sound. With “a little more alternative, a little more swagger” in her songs, she knew that this was the perfect time to create Annie Foxx.

“I’m really excited about being able to explore different genres and work with different people to show a side that I wouldn't necessarily show in my music under my real name,” she said. “I'm just having fun with it and seeing where it takes me.”

Although many of her collaborators reside in different states, her pre-pandemic way of collaborating digitally has altered slightly. Motivation comes and goes, as it has for many in the last year and a half, but this time spent at home has given her the chance to really focus on what she wants Annie Foxx to be.

Her inspiration comes from several songwriters whose careers she follows online and has seen release music under a variety of side projects. She plans to continue to release music as Anna Volpe, but wanted this new sound to be a project of its own.

She has also found inspiration from artists such as Bishop Briggs and Billie Eilish. Each have their own vocal and lyrical styles, but they both share a confidence that Volpe wanted to replicate in her own music.

“I always love to hear music to hype you up, so [Bishop Briggs] was a big inspiration,” she said. “I think what I'm really attracted to with Billie Eilish is the darkness in the lyrics. It's just fun to experiment and explore and not have a lot of pressure, and that’s what they represent to me.”

Her first single, “Blood Runs Cold”, was actually inspired by the show Peaky Blinders. Its main character, Thomas Shelby, has a similar kind of confidence that Volpe sees in Bishop Briggs and Billie Eilish, and in just a few hours the song was fully written.

The project of Annie Foxx was already in motion by the time “Blood Runs Cold” was written, but she immediately recognized that it was the perfect song to introduce her new sound.

“I really like the punchy aspect, percussion wise and production wise, and I really loved the vibe of it,” she said. “I feel like it's a good song to hype someone up if they're feeling unmotivated. I hope it gives a little more push of confidence.”

Every night before bed, Montreal native Nova Rose would listen to her father play guitar while she sang along. Their routine quickly developed into her interest in playing violin, guitar and piano. Those interests became her passion, and her passion became her career.

“I think I fell in love with music through activities like these,” she said. “I was always a very artsy and creative kid but just having someone in my family be so supportive and musically inclined definitely played a huge role in wanting to pursue music.”

Her father told her that success doesn’t happen overnight, so she made sure to work as hard as she could, anywhere she could. She balanced music with attending university, and by the time she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and Cultural Studies, she was writing songs with artists from around the world, performing at different venues throughout Canada and reached a number one spot on Quebec radio stations.

“It was definitely tough,” she said. “There were many moments where I wanted to just drop everything. However, I have great friends and a great at-home support system, so I thank them for helping me balance everything.”

Her latest singles, “G.L.I.T.R.” and “Somebody Else”, have two vastly different interpretations but embrace the modern pop sounds she loves. “Somebody Else” celebrates the courage to be the most authentic version of yourself while “G.L.I.T.R.” celebrates the nostalgia of previous relationships.

[“G.L.I.T.R.”] was a fun one to write,” she said. “It’s about reminiscing those summer flings and moments and just feeling free... I hope listeners can just have fun listening to it and try to live in the moment of the song, not overthink anything.”

“‘Somebody Else’ is a song I wrote at a time when I didn't feel like I fit into the industry, look wise,” she continued. “I had this skewed idea of what Hollywood was and I think that's because I surrounded myself with people who made me feel like I had to be something that I wasn't. Now, I carefully choose who to surround myself with. Those I choose to work with are not only extremely talented, but are down to earth and in tune with themselves.”

With this better grasp on who she wants to be and who she wants to surround herself with, Nova Rose now wants to focus on improving her songwriting and vocal skills as she gears up to release more music. Her passion is as present as ever, and it is all thanks to those nightly sing alongs.

Photo courtesy of Mia Naome Photography

When South Carolina indie-rock outfit Whitehall released their second album, Swordfish Catcher, last month, they knew that all their hard work finally paid off.

This time around, the band spent more time in the pre-production process. By the time they went to record at Rialto Row (now The Space) in Charleston, they had really workshopped the songs and in turn made the recording process a lot smoother.

“Most of the songs were fully formed, but we left room for a few of them to come into their own while we were in the process of recording, which was really fun,” the band said. “‘Swordfish’ and ‘Tuesday’ are good examples of those, and they ended up being a couple of our favorites.”

They spent two weeks in the studio, using inspiration from the last two years of touring to complete the 11 tracks. The album title, inspired by the song “Swordfish”, came about while the song still needed lyrics.

“[Vocalist Paddy Mckiernan] arbitrarily called [the song] ‘Swordfish Catcher’, but there was something we always liked about how that sounded and felt aesthetically,” they said. “[Guitarist Avery Greeson] decided to take a stab at writing some lyrics inspired by the name and came up with what would eventually become the lyrics we recorded for the song. We liked the way the name sounded so much we decided to name the album after it and shorten the song's title to just ‘Swordfish’.”

The cover art was decided around the same time that “Swordfish” was being written. Originally they had intended on using an old photo of bassist Brennan Clark’s grandfather standing next to a prize swordfish that he caught, but the artist behind the artwork had bigger ideas.

Although everything seemed to be falling into place nicely, there were moments during the creation process that challenged them. While working on “Automated”, they spent two hours trying to piece together drummer Davis Rowe’s bongo part but eventually had to cut it. They said it was a demoralizing moment for them, but taught them a very important lesson: that a bongo probably doesn’t need to be on a rock song.

Swordfish Catcher shares emotions of optimism, wariness and everything in between to bring the listener to a time where the band began to explore an entirely new territory.

“The album has a lot of peaks and valleys in terms of energy and intensity,” they said. “There are moments of chaos where you’re like ‘what the fuck is going on’ and there’s moments of reassurance and relief. Hopefully people will feel those things and the transitions between them. We want them to know that they’re not alone in their nervousness of navigating through their own emotions.”

Photo courtesy of Indi Pattinson

Lauren Harding and Mallory Trunnell first met in college while attending theatre school in Hollywood. It wasn’t until years later that they reconnected while playing the singer/songwriter circuit in Los Angeles, and ultimately formed the duo Crimson Calamity.

“We have similar interests and complimentary senses of humor so being in a band seemed like a natural fit,” they said. “We really are soul sisters and joke that we share a brain. You will often hear us saying the same thing at the same time. There’s no one else on earth we’d elect to spend this much time with - especially on the road for 12 hour drives.”

Before they were officially a duo, they were a part of a songwriting group that distributed prompts as a challenge to write a new song every month. One prompt was to write about an historic event or person, and as the two had been binge watching Deadwood, decided to collaborate on a song about Calamity Jane.

“We each came together with the initial ideas for ‘Line Em Up and Shoot Em Down’ and ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ and we were really excited as we finished each song because this sonic landscape started to show up,” they said. ‘We were nerding out about the branding, the staging, the outfits and all of the songs having a bad-ass vibe to them, be it Wild West, Folky, or Classic Rock.”

They loved alliteration so much that they went with Crimson Calamity, giving a nod to the woman that inspired their sound and encapsulated their own badassery as “women to be reckoned with, serving you hellfire and harmony.”

In addition to being badass women themselves, they have an entirely female production team. Their last three singles, and two upcoming singles, have all been produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by the talented Gena Johnson, Rachael Moore and Kim Rosen.

They’ve released two EPs, All in the Cards and Gypsy Heart. While they were full of whimsy and mystery, this time around they plan on showing real vulnerability.

“One thing that we’re trying to show in this new music is our softer side,” they said. “We don’t always have to be badasses or present things super polished... It’s a little more earthy, a little more raw and has more space for the listener to absorb the music and interpret what the songs mean to them.”

Their latest single, “My Best Friends”, was actually written a few years before Crimson Calamity was established. In another writing workshop, they had to pick a word out of a cup and write a song about it. The word they picked was ‘grass’. Written with their friends James Longsteet and Leighton Shields, the song was never meant to be a Crimson Calamity tune but made its way onto one of their setlists and quickly became a fan favorite.

Even though the song has been a part of their catalogue since the early days, they felt that now was the perfect time to release it.

“This past year has been so heavy and we wanted to release something with a feel good message,” they said. “We hope people are swept away with memories of summer nights in their youth and the reminder that you can have fun at any age.”

From theatre school to songwriting workshops and everything in between, Crimson Calamity have been working diligently to perfect their craft. With a lifelong friend by their side and an endless amount of inspiration, these two are sure to be unstoppable.

Photo courtesy of Dana Gorab

It was the spring of 2013 and The JUNO Awards were being held in my hometown, hosted by Michael Bublé. I was super into Bublé’s smooth crooner vocals as a kid, and I was sure he’d put on a good performance. I was all coiffed, suited and booted in generic hipster attire, having been styled meticulously by my first girlfriend with suspenders, dress shoes, a bowtie, some pomad, and a smug smile that says, “Yeah, I heard of them ages ago.” It was a year after I graduated high school, and as such, I had zero confidence in my ability to dress myself.

Somewhere between us getting ready at her mom’s house, we found the time to argue enough to warrant the occasional silent treatment from one another. Arguing was the activity we did the best, and certainly the most frequently throughout our relationship. When her mom dropped us off at the venue, we took our place in the long line at the entrance, and despite our catty antics with one another, my ex and I got to talking to the other JUNO attendees on either side of us. I tried making conversation with a 40-something year old man in very tight leather pants, but he wasn’t very talkative and he must have found the deathly stranglehold on his groin distracting, as he squirmed around uncomfortably in his tight leather prison. It seemed clear to me that this was the first time he had worn them. I turned away from him to a small woman, not much older than the first man, who was telling anyone who would listen that she had followed Michael Bublé from all of his previous appearances across the country, and was excited to finally be able to see him live again for the 400th time. She also showed us a picture of her with Oprah, and I noticed the strained expression on Oprah’s face was identical to mine at that current moment, as I examined the uncomfortable photo that was the background on her phone. “What a shameless, crazed fanatic - I can’t stand people like this,” I thought. Security opened the doors and my ex and I filed into the arena, with about 50 bodies between us as we dare not look at each other’s annoying face (*sigh*, young love…).

I found myself perpetually pushed forward from the in-flowing crowd behind me, like garbage in the trash compactor of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. I ended up being stationed about six feet from the long, narrow stage, with my ex being about one foot from it, sandwiching a bunch more stinky strangers between us.

The event was finally officially getting under way, and the lights shutting down heralded the beginning of the night’s entertainment as a voice called, “Please welcome your host: Michael Bublé!” Every person around me sounded out their enthusiasm with unbridled excitement at seeing a REAL LIVE CELEBRITY! Michael walked up the stage steps with his arms turned up towards the heavens, walking slowly like a Greek god greeting us peasants. I was well out of my adolescent Bublé phase, and as such was unaffected by the hysteria. Again, I scoffed to myself, “What sheep! What brainwashed, mindless-“ and as Michael drew closer to me, crossing the strip of stage, I felt my heart rate start to increase. As Michael’s beautiful head swivelled in my direction, I could feel my armpits sweating off my cheap sports deodorant. I was immediately gripped with fear, as I started to understand that the gut reaction to seeing Mr. Bublé just feet from me was making me lose control. The shrieking in my midst was at a fever pitch, and from the depths of my desperate, 19-year-old soul, a ball of unpredictable fire was making its way up my windpipe. As Michael passed directly in front of me, my arms shot up towards the ceiling, my mouth fell open and I cried out (to my total shame): “MICHAEL! YOU’RE AMAZING!”

Even the tweens beside me looked at me with contempt, as my arms slowly descended and I realized with horror that I was without a doubt the most despicably desperate of all the brainless sheep there that night. As I felt my JUNO pass that hung from my neck between my sweaty fingers, this realization combined with all of the previous pent-up emotions from my ex and I fighting, and a single tear rolled down my baby-faced, razor burned cheek, as I silently mourned the loss of my self-respect.

In the 1941 Disney film Dumbo, Dumbo and Timothy Mouse experience a hallucination of pink elephants that alter their appearance as they perform. When Finch Flores was watching it as an adult for the first time, it really spoke to him.

“To me, it’s a great scene that really shows you that just because you’re a pink elephant doesn’t mean you can’t be a purple hippo,” he said. “In that scene it takes any form, any life, very easily and I think humans are a lot like the pink elephants in that scene.”

Flores and his longtime bandmate, Josh Grosscup, stumbled across this scene from Dumbo at just the right time. Their band, Megosh, was working on a new album and noticed that their sound was changing drastically. Gone were the heavy guitars and were instead replaced with the pop sounds they’ve always admired. They didn’t want a specific genre to hold them back anymore, and with that they said goodbye to Megosh.

Playing as Pink Elefants, they now feel limitless. They went from barely breaking even during tours to building their own home studio. They’re able to release a pop song one month and a hip hip song the next. The days of working dead end jobs are over.

“Now it’s what we live and breathe,” Grosscup said. “We make money with our music and our art and we’re able to survive and continue to do it. Our fans, whom we call ‘Elefans’ or the ‘Elefamily’ believe in us, they support us. We couldn’t be here without them. Could have never done this in Megosh. Not even close to it, it would have been laughable.”

‘Elefans’ show up for them in more ways than one. They tune in nightly for live streams. They support one another through the good and bad times. They find ways to meet in person. They even get their own nicknames - ‘Elemama’ and ‘Elevibes’, to name a few.

Starting Pink Elefants has really changed their outlook on life. Although their writing style has always been evolving, they have really learned through this project that they needed to focus on the meaning of the song versus the song just sounding good.

By learning that, they have simplified their songwriting. There was a different expectation in Megosh with their sound that isn’t present in Pink Elefants. This time around, they explained that these songs are more digestible to the listener.

“People underestimate the art of simplifying a song and it still being good,” Grosscup said.

“The main difference between Megosh and Pink Elefants is we are here to play ball,” Flores added. “I want a song [that] if I tell people about the song I wrote they know it and I want to feel accomplished because I’ve been doing this shit a long time and it’s time for me to try to go get the trophy to go with it.”

A full-length album is their goal for the near future, but they aren’t going to force it with a deadline. Maybe they’ll drop a mixtape that’s only available on their website. Maybe they’ll keep releasing singles that stay singles. The possibilities are endless with Pink Elefants, and they have no plans of stopping.

No Stuffy has ever gone into the Darkness and returned...

In the second installment of the Stuffed series, Clark arrives at camp ready to learn more about the Monster world and how Stuffies protect kids from them. Once him and his friends, Catherine-Lucille and D.A., set foot on the campgrounds, they discover that something strange is happening.

The bunk beds are covered in something gooey. The adults are exhibiting bizarre behavior. Stuffies and dolls are disappearing right when they are needed most. Soon enough, Clark’s Stuffy, Foon, discovers that the Monsters are after Clark and him.

In the long tradition of Stuffies vs. Monsters, this one’s a battle for the ages - one that will certainly go down in Stuffy history.

Author Liz Braswell originally developed the idea of Stuffed more than 20 years ago as a video game. It evolved through many stages as a video game and even a graphic novel before becoming what it is today.

“This is where it belongs and I have a zillion rewrites to prove it,” she said.

Stuffed: Into Darkness had been forming in the back of Braswell’s mind for a while, but took only a year or so to write. The editing process was a bit different than usual, thanks to the global pandemic. The days felt endless but also incredibly short. Her children were around 24/7, which certainly wasn’t a bad thing, but made that balance of work life and personal life a bit difficult.

There were rewarding moments in creating the book that stick out in her mind, especially when writing about Clark’s evolving relationships with his friends or the travel scenes with Foon and his captive Monster, the Phlebbish. There were also challenging moments that in the long run became wonderful additions to the storyline.

“Creating Kris, who is a bully, but human - but ultimately a bully - was hard,” she said. “I didn’t want a made-for-TV-movie style redemption for him in the end or have him be irredeemable.”

Ryan - vocals: On a personal level, this pandemic has definitely changed my daily life, especially in my day job as a teacher. Trying to keep students six feet apart has been a challenge in itself, but thankfully our district found a way around that by providing face shields for students to wear while wearing a mask as well when working together closer than six feet. Students have had to become accustomed to silent snacks, mask breaks and making sure to use hand sanitizer when both entering and exiting a room. As a teacher, I have had to wear many hats, including having to become an IT technician. We have some students who have been remote all year and other students who are working remotely when quarantining. Considering all students are learning at the same time and not in cohorts, what this means is teachers are not only teaching to the students physically in front of them, but we have computer screens in front of us to teach to students remotely as well.

We have had to become jugglers to make sure remote students and students in person can access the material equally, fix IT issues that arise and be there to support students’ emotional well-being during this unique time all while teaching.

Aside from teaching, trying to keep our band afloat in the midst of a pandemic has certainly been challenging, but we chose not to give up. It hasn’t been easy, but regardless of the obstacles thrown at us, we found a way to overcome them. Performing shows is one of the most important aspects of being in a band and we found ourselves struggling to find ways to work around the lack of physical shows. Once restaurants started to open up more, the owners requested that all music be instrumental only (meaning no vocals). This was a unique challenge for us and we felt it best to wait until there were outdoor shows again. In order to solve this problem, we decided to tap into livestreams and pre-recorded shows, including a music festival that was purely online this year.

Another challenge we had was filming our music video for “What Are You Waiting For.” It took us three months to complete it due to the pandemic and trying to figure out how and where we would record it. We were also only able to film one person’s part of the video a day due to filming in different parts of Connecticut. In addition, we also had to wait until places started to open up more before we could film all of us together at the end of the video at practice. Overall, we were excited and proud to complete the video, which in itself exemplifies that with perseverance anything can be possible. We had a lot of fun filming it and hope you enjoy it too!

While practicing social distancing, watch our music video for "What Are You Waiting For":