Photo courtesy of Clarissa Villondo

My journey during the pandemic has been wild. My original plans for 2020 were to release some singles, a couple videos, and hit the Pride Festival circuit. Me and several other queer indie artists planned a show for May to kick off the season. Of course, that all went out the window when COVID hit.

Being forced to go back to the drawing board freed up space in my mind to find new sources of creativity. I got a huge wave of inspiration at the top of 2020. I started writing a ton of music that would eventually turn into the EP I’m putting out later this year. These songs are different from anything I released previously. They feel more authentic and personal.

Socially, I got closer to a number of queer musicians. I founded the playlist Queer&Indie with J GRGRY. That was a huge breakthrough for me. It’s important to have a community of artists to lean on. We’re cheerleaders for one another and I know there’s always someone to support me when challenges arise. I appreciate the camaraderie, especially during this isolating time.


Personally, the weirdest pandemic change was relief from any form of social anxiety. With the whole world being turned upside down, I guess I have no more fucks left to give? With there being so much tension and chaos in the world, I think the dam containing all my nerves and stress burst and now I feel freer. I’m not getting bogged down by negativity. Life’s too short, you only live once, etc.

During the pan, I started doing these cardio dance classes on YouTube. Can you say game changer?! I used to dance around my room a lot in high school and hadn’t accessed that part of myself in a very long time. I’m not going to pretend I’m good at it, but it’s been a huge source of joy and fun for me. You might even see some choreo in the “Ruthless” video…

Speaking of “Ruthless,” it’s the first single from my EP and coincidentally about reclaiming your agency after experiencing trauma. The original inspiration was heartbreak, but as I write this post now, I’m realizing the parallels with my personal growth throughout the last year. It’s funny how that all worked out.

I can’t wait to see everyone in person once we’re safely on the other side of this thing. Maybe I’ll try out some new dance moves.

Photo courtesy of Marianne Harris

This global pandemic really did hit us like a flying haymaker, and by that I mean square in the face really, really hard! We had not long finally received the final cut of our latest EP, Heart, Mind & Hell, which we had recorded with Innersound Audio in York back in September 2019. We were playing shows and planning our release process; we had chosen which tracks we were going to be shooting music videos for and had plans in place for the social media build-up along with a couple of UK tours on the horizon with some great bands.

Needless to say, the UK’s lockdowns put everything on hold. The tours were cancelled, the video shoots postponed and along with all that we now had to make a decision as to whether or not we would sit on the EP or put it out there anyway! We decided to wait, which seems to have been a saving grace as it gave us more time to prepare for all of the background work that goes into releasing new music.

On a personal note, this did actually make things difficult as I was placed on furlough from work for two and a half months with nothing to put my focus into. Fortunately for me, my housemates (Matt, who plays bass and provides some of the vocals also in the band, and his girlfriend) were also off work, which meant that we could at least provide each other with some form of human interaction. Matt came up with the idea that we should try to make weekends mean something so that we would constantly have something to look forward to each week. By that he meant let’s only get drunk on Fridays and Saturdays…this didn’t last long and we were soon drinking most days. I did, however, get back into reading fantasy novels and putting hours in on the PlayStation.

As the UK went in and out of lockdowns towards the end of 2020, we made the decision to finally release the EP. We managed to get videos done through the brief moments of lifted restrictions and also had the plans in place to slowly release teasers and songs over the first few months of 2021 with the big day coming on the 9th April! We were thrilled with the response that we received from new and old fans, which spurred us on to keep the content coming after the release. The lockdown gave us the time to put together our merch store and get it looking as good as possible before going live.

As we appear to be getting back to some sense of normality in England we are looking forward to getting shows and possible tours back in the works with the hopes that this year we can finally play live the songs that we recorded back in 2019. I think that due to not being able to practice with the guys and play shows in so long I have realised that I was taking certain aspects of being in a band for granted and I can honestly say that I will be putting in all the effort possible to ensure that I don’t do that again.

If everyone could spare us a few moments of their time to check out the latest Next Stop Olympus EP, Heart, Mind & Hell, that would be amazing. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Photo courtesy of Chad Griffith

Long before receiving their degrees from the University of Dayton, Nick Gerard and Max Anthony knew that creating music together was in their future. When they found themselves living together in the midst of a global pandemic, their long nights filled with deep conversations slowly turned into a six-track EP for their project, HARLOR.

They always seemed to land on the topic of heartbreak. The more they discussed their personal heartbreak, the more they realized their conversations were relatable on different levels.

“Each song is very specific to a certain situation in any relationship, whether that be husband, wife, girlfriend, friend, parent, family member; any kind of relationship that you have,” Anthony said. “The struggles and hardships and how to really get through them or if you just wanted to know if somebody else was going through the same thing - that's really what this project is for.”

The creation process is never completely the same for them. Sometimes Anthony will have a set of words or a chord structure that he will pass along to Gerard for completion. Sometimes Gerard will have written something on piano or guitar for Anthony to flush out, and sometimes Gerard will come to Anthony with a completed song.

“[Gerard is] really the mastermind behind the songwriting,” Anthony said. “He's the one that starts it and gets it going. I try to make sure he doesn't stall out. I try my best to send him ideas or topics he might not be thinking of or a melody that in turn would help spark something for him.”

For each of them, creating the songs for their EP, Letters To An X, felt like therapy sessions. They had their moments of clarity, recording in the loft of Anthony’s bedroom, as well as their struggles. They considered themselves extroverted individuals, especially when it came to songwriting, but found themselves almost shunning away any other input during isolation. It was a different approach to music than they’d ever done before, and don’t necessarily want to try again.

Despite the difficulties that came with creating music during a pandemic, Gerard was still adamant on each song having a strong message.

“Nick and I decided these tracks were probably the ones that convey the message of heartbreak the best,” Anthony said. “The start tells a story and then each song brings you through the journey through the end. It ends with ‘Be Well’, saying after all of this heartbreak we all just want to be good somehow.”

Letters To An X is a series of songs that remind the listener that heartbreak is real and inevitable, but that there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. With sadness comes happiness, and with HARLOR comes an EP rich in talent.

A couple of days after arriving back home from our Filipino tour in early March 2020, we got the news: Norway is locking down due to the serious COVID situation. We were both in our studio when we got the news, and as we had just been in the Philippines, we were quarantined for a few weeks.

At our studio we are naturally isolated. Carol’s parents live nearby, but apart from them, the nearest house is many hundreds of meters away. In total there are about 100 people living in the area, and the nearest shop is 10 km away. Staying away from other people was pretty easy.

We had lots of plans that had to be postponed. That was kind of sad, but we tried to make the most of it. It was the perfect time to start working on new songs and new material. As we couldn’t meet other people, we decided to learn how to make music videos as well. That’s when we made our first ever real music video, “Run With You”, featuring Carol’s sister.

So have you heard of this ‘Great Reset’ happening? The pandemic was more like the great redux. How was yesterday? What day is today? Rinse, step, repeat. During lockdown, as the fantastic Money Mark sings, tomorrow will be like today. By May, my brain was bruised from the constant cacophony of media fear porn.

Repetition works when it’s intentional, compounding, measurable. So that’s where my focus went — how to take this lemon of a pandemic and make it a refreshing cocktail? Sanity came the usual way: make music.

TV watching is not a habit for me. Then again, neither was being trapped inside a house like Jodie Foster in Panic Room. So the focus was on docs, musicals and biographies. Garth Brooks’ bio is so self-serving that it’s admirable (I think he made it himself, natch). And Rock of Ages starring Tom Cruise? You should watch it. Same with Metallica’s Some Kind of Monster. That’s a solid night's double feature right there!

The one that hit me hard was on Dolly Parton. She still writes ‘one or a few songs every day.’ Every day! Ah ha! That was it! I’m going to lock myself in my mixing room and write songs every day! Hello, Dolly!

And that first night, I wrote two songs. The first one, “Move Along”, was a real genie coming out of the bottle. But after a week of diminishing songwriting returns, I realized what I needed was a deadline. Without some SELF-imposed restriction, mind you, I am just a swirl of ADHD energy that needs to be put inside a bomb casing.

My email to John Vanderslice, owner of Tiny Telephone Recording here in Northern California, was brief. If we were socially distanced, could we use the studio for a week? Recording studios are naturally socially distant places. The singer’s in a little room behind glass. The band is 20 to 30 feet apart in a giant room. The tape operator is isolated. Toss in one of those hand-held thermometers and you’ve got yourself a recording party.

The dates were agreed upon. The engineer, drummer and bassist were available. Excitement brewed. Are we gonna actually interact as musicians, playing together, in the same space... at the same time? Take my middle finger, Zoom!

Except… what were we going to play?

Knowing the elements, and having a deadline, made inspiration happen. With a pot of coffee in hand, I sat in my garage with a notebook, a guitar and my One Man Drum Company suitcase kick drum. And two days before the session, I emailed seven skeletal demos off to the band. A week later, the album Cacophony emerged from the flames of pandemia like a phoenix! Or maybe more like a lazy seagull.

Three weeks after we finished the mix, I became a dad for the first time. All creative projects need a deadline. And a little bit of lemon never hurts.

Photo courtesy of Nathalie Antonov

Throughout her childhood, Sug Daniels watched her mother perform in the church choir. She was enamored by her mother’s constant powerful and raw performances, and soon enough she too had joined Sunday choir.

“Being exposed to such emotional music at an early age made me crave more,” she said. “I spent years unknowingly developing my musical palette. I listened to what the punk rock kids in school liked, rap, rock, anything I could get my ears on to experience that feeling again.”

There was never a deciding moment that made her want to pursue music. Music had always been there for her, and eventually, she stopped pretending like she wanted to pursue anything else.

Her songwriting has matured over the years, as has she, but she still finds herself learning lessons from her past.

“My music and I have moved side by side throughout the years,” she said. “As I grew older and had more experiences, both good and bad, I had more material to write about. I have only just realized that I've used my music since I was younger to flush out my feelings and emotions. After a song is written I have a better understanding of how I truly feel. I take those lessons into the next song to create a deeper connection.”

Her latest single, “Heavy”, came about during an emotionally raw time in her life. She had just experienced a major breakup, and as a friend provided a shoulder to cry on, she wasn’t sure if that was friendship or budding romance. It was a lonely time in her life, and while that friendship was nothing more, it inspired her to write down those feelings she felt she couldn’t escape from.

“When people listen I hope they see themselves,” she said about the single. “The theme of the song is very vulnerable and relatable across all races, sexual orientations and backgrounds. I make music for myself but I release and perform it to connect with the world around me. I hope it gives them a vocabulary to describe their feelings or at least a notion that they aren't the only ones who feel this strange and awkward.”

“Heavy” serves as a glimpse into her forthcoming EP, Franklin Street, which will be released this fall through Weird Sister Records. Not only is this her first solo project, but this will also be the label’s first release.

“I am so excited to work with a team of people whose goals, morals and visions align with my own,” she said. “Every time I speak with them about an idea, or a new vision for myself I feel encouraged and supported...the elation and desire to make each other proud is palpable.”

From church choir to a record label release, Sug Daniels and her music truly have moved side by side. As the two continue to move together, the brighter her talent shines.

When Nashville quartet Say Kids decided to hold off on releasing music in 2020, they instead put all their energy into making an album that meant something to them.

“We each take our own badge of honor having survived [the pandemic] and still sticking together,” frontman Peyton Smith said. “I know I'm super happy to have them around. We’re all best friends so it wouldn't change even if we weren't playing together.”

Writing songs and practicing their instruments happened on a daily basis during quarantine, but it was their optimistic attitude that kept them going. They knew there would be a day when the world would begin to heal, when live music would find its way back, and they wanted to be prepared. Having this time to flesh out each song and perfect them for future live performances was exactly what they needed.

Their first single of the year, “Honeydew”, captures the fearfulness that comes from invalidation. Smith wrote it with the intention of expressing his fear that their first live show post-pandemic would be missing its key players - their fans.

“I was fearful that I wasn't going to hear from any of the people I saw at shows or I was going to lose some of the people in the scene that we really cared about,” he said.

Although the lyrics were speaking to his specific fear at that moment, it quickly captured the fear everyone gets from not hearing from somebody. “Honeydew” is their way of saying that even though fans didn’t hear new music from them last year, they’re still here.

“No matter how scary things are ramping up in your life, and nobody may be telling you you're going in the right direction or that you're doing the right thing or you're surrounded by the right people, don't worry,” Smith said. “It was my way of trying to be a good friend because I really think COVID separated people in so many different ways. I think musicians really felt it a lot, not being able to find that community, and it's coming back and it feels so great.”

The world opening back up means they can finally share new songs, and ultimately share the new album. They recorded 12 songs over two days at the studios at HOME (Helping Our Music Evolve) with longtime friend Adam Lochemes, and hope to have it released by the end of the year.

“We really pushed ourselves musically,” Smith said. “I think what we've all taken away from this process is, ‘oh man, we did that’. All the hard work leading up to the recording made the process really fun and stress-free. We were really able to joke around and enjoy the experience together and I think just taking away that memory is what everybody dreams of.”

Jasper, vocals: Rough times, but still inspirational - a clear message that we are walking the wrong road trying to do everything alone. No shows, no unity, social distance and a lot of ways to keep us apart. As a band, being apart means we also know what makes us whole; we feed on working together, playing together and making music together. We feed on the energy of the crowd, the words of the ones that listen to and love our music. But even though our lives changed, we keep on making music and we keep on spreading our message: together we are one. We need people and love around us to flourish.

So what do our lives look like right now? We try to keep our heads leveled, our bodies in shape and our minds clear. We keep writing music, recording songs and giving it our all. We aim to break free from the social distance hold, to reach out to the ones we love. We know we will be able to do it if we keep working hard. 

Well, where to start!? Listen, I’m a hot mess so here we go!

6:00 a.m.: Alarm goes off. I lean over, grab my phone and snooze it. 15 minutes later I do it again. It takes me about five alarms to actually get up in the morning.

I wish I could tell you a sweet story about how I go to the gym and pump that sweet, sweet iron to look cute and sexy... but I don’t. I roll out of bed, grab my phone and check my stocks to only realize I don’t invest enough money for it to actually matter. But I check it anyway, so I feel like an adult that is doing something to earn extra income.

At this point, I take a shower and start looking through my clothes only to realize that I need to do laundry because my favorite shirts are dirty most of the time (I travel a lot... try not to judge, but it’s ok if you do).

Now that I’m fully awake, I start my meditation to get centered. I put both hands over my chest and say out loud all of the things I am thankful for in that moment. “I’m thankful for fresh air. I’m thankful for my job. I’m thankful for my family.” Things like that. Honestly, if you haven’t tried it, you should! I feel so good and thankful to be alive when I’m done.

The next part changes day to day. While I would love music to be my full-time gig, I still work in film. Depending on if I have a project underway or not, I might be on a plane to a location shoot, on the computer hunting down resources for production or coordinating any myriad of details. But let’s say I don’t have a project going on. I will typically spend a few hours dreaming about what I want to accomplish. I’ll kind of make some notes on how I can help those dreams become a reality today. Let’s be real here, I am an enthusiast for life.

Speaking of being an enthusiast for life... if someone calls me with a fun time, chances are I’m there. I will never miss out on a party or a hang. It fuels me creatively. I write about experiences that I’ve lived, so the more the better. And I have lived through some experiences. Some good, and some where I’m left questioning, “Why did I just do that?”

I’m extremely ‘go with the flow’. I don’t plan out a lot of things, I just let them happen. My songs tend to come to life in the same fashion, usually pretty quickly. When a melody or lyrics come to me, I’ll whip out my phone and record a snippet, or even a video if there’s a piano or guitar nearby. My phone is a petri dish of songs that haven’t yet come to life.

But like a lot of artists, I think, I get a feeling when I strike gold. And that centers me because I will work at a good one until it’s done. Over the last year, I blew up my life - questioned my faith, ended my marriage, moved from the city I’ve lived in nearly all my life, walked away from my band to start a solo music career. It’s been a lot. And I’ve found a sort of peace with it all through my songwriting. Creating these songs has been cathartic. They’re very real, very raw and very honest, which can be a hard thing to come face-to-face with. But it’s been good for me. Challenging, yet at the same time it feels right. Like this is what I’m meant to be doing.

So for now, I’m focused on getting these songs out there into the world. I want to connect with people on that same level, let everyone know it’s okay to be who you are supposed to be. I just dropped my first single, “The Weight”, and a whole EP is coming a few months behind it.

As the world starts to settle into whatever this next phase is going to look like, I’m looking forward to finally getting back out there and playing some shows, getting that face time with people, having new experiences and discovering even more about myself.