JUNG’s song “Waste My Heart” is off of their new album ‘Cause in the End You Know That Everybody Dies’
This week’s Fresh Brewed Playlist was curated with a black tea lemonade!
The haunting melodies of JUNG’s song “Waste My Heart” are a standout among the band’s incredibly strong album Cause In The End You Know That Everybody Dies, which was released back in February. “You came to me and I was hopeless too, against all the odds we felt something new, so when you’re close to running out of fuel, just let me know so I can work for two,” the duo made up of Tom and Henrik Ljungqvist show a true vulnerability on the bridge. Upon first listen, I found myself lost in a trance- taking in every bit of production, songwriting and the magical atmosphere they had to offer. All at once, it feels both classic and fresh. Now excuse me as I listen to it another 27 times in a row.
“Good Again” by Sofia Quinn is a beautifully raw, introspective ode to her younger self and the path she has taken in order to heal. “I just wanna get passed this guilt, all the trauma that I never let heal, or at least one day know that I will,” she sings on the chorus of the hope she holds for her future. Quinn co-produced the track with Noby Sidez, and the singer’s voice has never sounded better- performing vocal acrobatics in the final 45 seconds that prove her to be a force to be reckoned with in pop music.
Lyric of the week: “It’s cold tonight, so you sleeping over, right?, Texting me, told you come have sex with me, respectfully, I think about you sexually”- Role Model in “neverletyougo”
Check out the rest of the songs featured on Fresh Brewed #8 below!
I have a bunch of surprises coming up in the next few weeks that I am SO excited to share with you all. For now, hit me up on my socials below!
This week’s Fresh Brewed Playlist was curated with an iced vanilla oatmilk latte!
Dezi’s intimate new single “Seen” is a beautifully written ode to a partner who is struggling to open up fully. Dezi’s voice is the centerpiece among the laid-back production, which is a welcome change of pace after a string of badass, vibey singles. There’s an emotional, raw undertone to the lyrics about the power that the singer’s partner holds over her with lines like “Darlin’ I would wait for you, but I know you don’t want me to. You could break me, and I’d buy the glue, but I’ll settle for a notch on your bedpost“. Despite her willingness to give them her all, she’s prepared to let them go if they are too scared to let her in. Dezi’s honesty is a gift and I think many listeners will find comfort within her sound.
“Love On TV” is another beautiful release by Nigerian born and Texas raised duo KAIRO, who are made up of identical twin brothers named Ej and Ak. The song reflects on the impact that the romances featured in TV and movies can have on our own notions of love. Their harmonies are absolutely beautiful, even reminiscent of classic vocal arrangements by Boys II Men. “I’ll never go, you’ll never be alone, now we’re just actors on a canceled show,” the duo question the point of love if we are all just set to fall short of the examples we are raised on. Along with their debut single “Someone Like You”, their upcoming EP Love Letters From Houston which is set to be released on May 25th, is set to be a melodic marvel.
Lyric of the week: “We were in love under the sun now it’s getting colder, I’ll be the one, I’ll be the one with you when it’s over“- Dreamer Boy in “Over Everything”
Check out the rest of the songs featured on Fresh Brewed #7 below!
Have an artist you’d like to see featured on my channels? Send me your feedback and recommendations on any of my socials!
Here at Brew Music Friday, I had the pleasure of speaking with singer-songwriter Madeleine Mayi about the meaning behind her new single “SNAP”, her creative process and some artists she’d love to collaborate with someday. Check it out below!
Brew Music Friday: Congrats on your new song “SNAP”! It’s another beautiful release. Can you tell us a bit about the inspiration behind it?
Madeleine Mayi : Thank you so much!! Means a lot. This song is a nostalgic reflection on first love. And more specifically about how time changes your perception of things, even when they felt totally consuming at the time. The reason this came about is because I started going back to therapy and so much old stuff came up. I just felt like it was time.
BMF: You’ve really developed a sound unlike any artist I’ve heard so far. For anyone unfamiliar with your work, how would you describe your sound?
Madeleine: Well that’s a big compliment. I would say my overall genre is kind of indie pop/rock with a big focus on nostalgia. I know I just mentioned that in my previous answer, but I want to make music that feels really timeless, and I keep that in mind when choosing what to say and how to present it.
BMF: What’s your creative process like?
Madeleine: My creative process is all centered around alone time. In everything. I need alone time to write, or to think about what I want to write about in a session, I need to think about how a song should be displayed visually, how I feel the meaning of the song should reflect in the production etc etc. and another huge part of it has been surrounding myself with collaborators I trust and can experiment with. My worst nightmare is to be stuck in one method and never evolve my art, and my team really helps with exploring new things when I don’t know how to do it myself.
BMF: In 2021 your released your album “2/14”, which you described as a project about grief and healing. Are “for a second” and “SNAP” a part of another upcoming project?
Madeleine: I have some more singles coming out, but definitely got something fun in mind after that…
BMF: Are there any artists who you would like to work with?
Madeleine: Oh my gosh so many. I’d love to work with BENEE, Nightly, and then I mean… James Blake for sure, and Taylor Swift. Jack Antonoff. So many many people come to mind
BMF: What is it about music that makes you feel passionate?
Madeleine: Music has always been the way i can express my feelings most clearly, and see myself clearly too. sometimes I’ll write a song and listen back and realize that I didn’t even know I felt so strongly/a certain way about something. It’s also the thing I am most excited to give people.
Brew Music Friday: Do you have any live shows planned?
Madeleine: Yes!! I have not officially announced it yet but I am planning a big LA show for the first week of may. The lineup is gonna be insane, I’m so excited!
You can follow Madeleine on her Twitter and her Instagram to keep up with any announcements and more! Check out her newest release “SNAP” on all streaming platforms now.
I interrupt our usual shenanigans to talk to you about my experience with grief and how music has been a life raft in my journey towards healing.
Today marks the 2-year anniversary of my mother’s death.
There’s an innate emptiness that comes from watching a parent deal with a sickness. It’s an all-encompassing black hole that consumes the aspects of your life that might have been a priority had your situation been different. To experience anything other- whether it be love or a social life, would be selfish, right? Just the idea of focusing on anything other seemed merely impossible, and so I isolated myself.
My Mom first became sick back in 2008 when I was 14. The next 12 years were filled with counting the ceiling tiles of hospital rooms, listening to her beautiful anecdotes of the life she had lived, and relishing in every single moment I was able to breathe the same air she breathed.
On March 13, 2020- my world shattered. Every single Doctor’s appointment and hospital stay somehow failed to prepare us for her loss. In the wake of her death, I clung to anything that might keep me afloat, and music became a sense of peace for my war ridden mind. For the moments when the voices got so loud, when the water began to fill my lungs, when life felt so lonely that I sometimes wished it could just…. stop.
I’d isolated myself and my feelings for so long that I felt as if I needed to keep up this facade that everything was okay, even when I was alone. And so, I sat in my house and in my car, just to allow myself to feel what the music could help me work through. It took a long time, but I finally feel like I’m on the right path.
I wanted to share a collection of songs that remind me of my mom- whether they are some of her favorites or they somehow put into words the pain I’ve felt in loving and losing her.
“Older Than I Am” by Lennon Stella is a beautiful ballad about the toll that taking on major responsibilities and being forced to mature at a young age can take on someone. I remember sobbing the first time I heard her sing the opening lines of “My heart’s seen things I wish it didn’t, somewhere, I lost some of my innocence and I miss it“. Being released just over a month after I lost my mom, it felt as if Lennon made this just for me (obviously she did).
Taylor Swift’s beautiful songwriting has long been a friend to me throughout most of my life- but in recent years her openness about her own mother’s battle with cancer has anchored her in my heart. On “Soon You’ll Get Better”, she chronicles the fear of losing her mother through every step from the doctor’s office diagnosis to the ways she needs to cope in order to remain positive.
“And I hate to make this all about me, but who am I supposed to talk to? What am I supposed to do, if there’s no you,” she sings on the bridge, unable to fathom a world without her best friend. At first, I couldn’t cope but I found peace in knowing that my mom would never want me to crumble beneath the weight of the sorrow. She’d want me to go on living, after all she taught me the meaning of strength through every battle she faced.
Patrick Droney’s “Glitter” describes the duality of grief in that the memories can be beautiful, but the pain can be impossible to be rid of. “See grief is just like glitter, it’s hard to brush away. Bright light and it still shimmers, like it was yesterday,” he reminds us of the beauty in the overwhelming grief. The immense loss can be so blinding that you lose track of the happy moments- something I struggled to remember for quite some time.
Some of these songs are painful, but I find comfort within the pain. Grief can be so isolating and yet, it’s what unites us all. I hope you find solace within this little collection just as I have. As the closing track “Healing” says, “the smoke ain’t gone, but it’s clearing.”
Tayler Buono’s new single “Keep Hoping” is out now!
This week’s Fresh Brewed Playlist was curated with a black tea and fresh lemon!
“Used to be a hopeless romantic, now I try to hope less cause damn it you made it hard for me,” Tayler Buono lays it all on the line on the chorus of her newest single “Keep Hoping”. The new track is a part of her upcoming project called “How to Get Through a Breakup” with each release representing another stage of the process. Buono’s voice is like an open wound on the light indie pop production, but her lyrics remain hopeful in the bridge with lines like “Someday I will find someone who doesn’t say goodbye, the girl who wasn’t scared to jump will remember what it’s like“. Instant chills.
Katherine Li’s new track “We Didn’t Even Date” chronicles the reeling of one-sided heartbreak, from the pain of thinking that her feelings aren’t valid to still wishing things could be different between her and the person she loves. The lyrics hit home for anyone who has ever been in such a “situationship” or fallen for someone who never loved them back. This is a song for those who never got their perfect movie ending- with lines like “Wish I could just take it all back, didn’t date but we might as well have“. Yeah um… I’ve definitely never been there before- *cries*.
Lyric of the week: “You were my first to last, full weight on the gas, stretching thin- we finally snap“- Madeleine Mayi in “SNAP”
Check out the rest of the songs featured on Fresh Brewed #6 below!
Have an artist you’d like to see featured on my channels? Send me your feedback and recommendations on any of my socials!
Also keep an eye out for my first interview with a really talented artist you may have seen in some of the playlists already! Coming soon….
LÉON’s third album Circles is a transcendent, ethereal journey of perseverance that assures that the Swedish artist is a once in a lifetime gift to music.
For her worldwide listeners, this is old news. Having released two near perfect albums with 2019’s self-titled LÉON and 2020’s Apart, the Swedish indie pop singer has garnered a massive following but still somehow remains right on the cusp of superstardom. If there’s any justice in this world, it’s all about to change with the release of Circles.
LÉON, aka Lotta Lindgren, explores a new chapter of her artistry here with 70’s grooves and stripped back moments that showcase her angelic tone and soul-baring lyricism. The four promotional singles that preceded the album’s release- “Dancer”, “Soaked”, “Fade into a Dream”, and “Wishful Thinking”- all set the tone of what was to come perfectly, but the true standouts are the deep cuts gifted to us all now.
“Wildest Dreams” is without a doubt the highlight of the album and perhaps her career. The Springsteen like saxophones and build in production create an outro so euphoric, it feels as if her vocals transport us towards liberation. “Come lay your weight upon me, lay your heart upon me, what are you waiting for,” she belts out after the final chorus, and the vocal layering is nothing short of exquisite. Listening with headphones is absolutely necessary.
Another album standout is “Look Like That”, a sexy, nostalgic vibe that brings you the most perfect Stevie Nicks like melody in the chorus. “What does it matter if it hurts just a little? Oh, don’t be stupid now, just meet me in the middle,” she begs her ex-lover in the bridge, admitting that just a single glance at him brings her right back.
What sets this album apart from her previous work however is where she leaves us in the end, with closing track “The Beach”. She uses the beach and the water to represent the heartbreak and grief that threatened to overtake her but, in the end, she finally finds her footing on the shore. As the production begins to rise and the drums begin to boom, she realizes that she can find a way out of her suffering.
“When the waves are crashing over, when I fear of letting go, reaching for the surface now I can see the shore. The strangest feeling hits me, that I’ve been here once before,” she leads us to catharsis on the bridge and closes the album out by reminding us that everything will be alright eventually. It’s impossible to not feel this release of anxiety and pain as the production slowly fades out, leaving us to heal in its wake.
The 11-track project is LÉON’s most personal to date, and therefore her most relatable. Every inch of the album is filled with emotion and introspection, gifted to us by an artist with the voice of an angel- perhaps given to the world to make us all feel less alone in our journeys.
This week’s Fresh Brewed Playlist was curated with a strawberry acai refresher!
“Last Call” is Khalid’s newest release, commemorating a celebration of the five-year anniversary of his first album American Teen. The 24-year-old singer’s voice has never sounded better, with his tone gliding smoothly over Digi’s production which sets the single as your next late night driving jam. “In this world full of hatred, somehow I feel your innocence,” Khalid sings of a love worth waiting for in this melancholic track that leaves his listeners begging for his next full-length release.
Brooklyn based singer, songwriter and producer Sadie’s single “4am” is an astonishing debut. The sadness-tinged dance track is sure to impress the likes of Charli XCX fans as Sadie dissects a relationship in which both partners are unable to cope and admit to their problems. In a statement on her Spotify page, she said that she “imagines the interior worlds of two people driving around in the middle of the night, leaving everything between them unsaid“.
“Dude”, Melbourne based singer RARIA’s latest single expresses the frustrations of a “situationship” in which her partner called her “dude” after sex. “I hate that I don’t know where this something is going, but not enough to stop it, so I keep falling,” her relatable lyrics carry a weight to them over the catchy pop melodies. Describing the inspiration behind the track, she says that “he would treat me like his partner, talk about our future together, but he was always emotionally unavailable; sometimes that can make you want a person even more“. I bet he’ll see how much he lost as this future superstar’s recognition continues to rise.
Lyric of the week: “One day I’ll just be a memory and you’ll be better“- Matt Hansen in “better off without me”
Check out the rest of the songs featured on Fresh Brewed #5 below!
Have an artist you’d like to see featured on my channels? Send me your feedback and recommendations on any of my socials!
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