Esosa Gabrielle Gets Real About Love, Lies, and Heartbreak on Powerful New Single “Guilty”
Out now, the emotionally charged release finds the rising artist turning betrayal and personal heartbreak into a fearless musical statement
Some of the most powerful music comes from the moments we’d rather forget. The broken promises. The sleepless nights. The uncomfortable truths that change everything. For rising recording artist Esosa Gabrielle, those experiences become the emotional foundation of her compelling new single, “Guilty,” officially released today and available now on Spotify.
Unfiltered, deeply personal, and emotionally fearless, “Guilty” explores the complicated aftermath of love gone wrong. Infidelity, divorce, shattered trust, and the struggle to reclaim one’s identity all find their place in a song that isn’t afraid to venture into uncomfortable emotional territory.
But Gabrielle isn’t simply revisiting heartbreak. She’s taking ownership of her story.
And that distinction makes all the difference.
When Love Becomes the Hardest Lesson
There’s something universally relatable about discovering that a relationship wasn’t what you believed it to be. The realization can be devastating, particularly when years of love, commitment, and shared dreams are suddenly called into question.
“Guilty” captures that emotional collision, examining what happens when devotion meets deception and the future you imagined begins to disappear.
Rather than reducing the experience to a simple story of right and wrong, Gabrielle explores the complicated emotions that accompany betrayal. There’s disappointment, confusion, vulnerability, and the difficult process of accepting that some relationships cannot be repaired.
It’s the kind of subject matter that demands emotional honesty, and Gabrielle embraces it.
What emerges is a song that speaks not only to those who have experienced infidelity, but to anyone who has ever been forced to rebuild after losing something they believed would last forever.
That emotional accessibility is what gives “Guilty” its strength. Listeners don’t need to know Gabrielle’s personal history to recognize the feelings behind the music.
They simply need to have loved someone.
No Perfect Love Stories Here
In an industry where romantic relationships are frequently packaged as glamorous fantasies, Gabrielle takes a refreshingly different approach.
Her music acknowledges that love can be messy, complicated, and occasionally devastating. People make mistakes. Trust gets broken. Feelings change. And sometimes the hardest part of moving forward is accepting what happened in the first place.
“Guilty” doesn’t attempt to wrap those realities in a neat, comfortable conclusion.
Instead, it confronts them.
For Gabrielle, that willingness to explore emotional complexity is becoming an important part of her artistic identity. She’s interested in the stories people recognize from their own lives, particularly the experiences that rarely make it into everyday conversation.
There’s a vulnerability to that approach, but there’s also considerable strength.
After all, sharing a painful experience with the world requires a different kind of courage than simply keeping it hidden.
From Personal Confession to Cinematic Storytelling
The release of “Guilty” is accompanied by a music video produced by Day Nine Films, extending the song’s emotional narrative into the visual world.
The collaboration brings a cinematic perspective to Gabrielle’s exploration of love, betrayal, and personal transformation, adding another layer to the storytelling behind the single.
For an artist whose work is rooted in human emotion, the visual component offers another way for audiences to connect with the themes driving the music.
It’s an approach that reflects Gabrielle’s desire to create experiences rather than simply release songs.
The Woman Behind “Guilty”
Gabrielle recently opened up about the personal experiences surrounding the single during an appearance on The Andrew Eborn Show.
The revealing conversation explored the difficult subjects of divorce, infidelity, and the emotional circumstances that helped inspire “Guilty.”
It was an opportunity for audiences to discover more about the person behind the music and understand why the song carries such personal significance.
For Gabrielle, speaking publicly about painful experiences represents another extension of her commitment to authenticity.
Rather than allowing difficult chapters of her life to remain unspoken, she’s using them as creative material, turning vulnerability into a source of connection with listeners.
That willingness to be open could become one of her most compelling qualities as her musical career continues to develop.
An Artist Finding Strength in the Truth
With the arrival of “Guilty,” Esosa Gabrielle is introducing audiences to an artist who understands that meaningful music doesn’t always come from happy endings.
Sometimes it comes from disappointment. Sometimes from loss. And sometimes from the moment you finally recognize that walking away is the beginning of something better.
Her latest release is a statement about emotional accountability, self-discovery, and the complicated process of healing.
More importantly, it reflects an artist determined to tell stories that matter to her, regardless of how uncomfortable those stories might be.
For listeners who have experienced the devastation of broken trust, “Guilty” offers recognition and understanding. For those still navigating the emotional aftermath of a difficult relationship, it provides a reminder that pain can eventually give way to resilience.
And for Esosa Gabrielle, it represents another step toward establishing a musical identity built on honesty rather than illusion.
Because sometimes the most powerful thing an artist can do is stop pretending everything is fine and tell the truth.
Esosa Gabrielle’s new single “Guilty” is available worldwide now.
Stream Esosa Gabrielle – “Guilty”
Artist: Esosa Gabrielle
Single: Guilty
Release Date: October 8, 2026
Music Video: Produced by Day Nine Films
Listen on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7eDIrd0cGjVl0UvS3Gij28?si=e530d2e960b8451e
Clarity Liao Turns Romantic Anxiety Into Upbeat Pop On ‘Lose’
Clarity Liao turns jealousy into something unexpectedly buoyant on ‘Lose’, the focus track from her forthcoming debut EP Dear…. Built around upbeat drums, electric guitar and a bright pop arrangement, the song deliberately rubs against its subject matter: insecurity, comparison and the fear of watching someone you want choose somebody else. What could have been a stripped-back confession instead becomes a lively study in emotional contradiction.
That tension gives ‘Lose’ its character. Liao originally conceived the song as a sparse piano ballad, but the finished production finds greater depth in its refusal to wallow. Her candid vocal delivery moves through infatuation, obsession and self-doubt without overplaying any of them, while touches of indie pop, R&B, bedroom pop and modern doo-wop give the track a loose, genre-fluid quality. The result feels less like a conventional breakup song than a snapshot of the irrationality that precedes acceptance.
As the track progresses, Liao gradually shifts her perspective from projection towards release. It is this movement that makes ‘Lose’ more than a song about romantic jealousy: beneath its polished pop surface is a portrait of someone confronting the limits of their own fantasy. As an introduction to her solo work, it establishes Liao as a songwriter more interested in following an emotion wherever it leads than fitting neatly into a predetermined sound.
DALE CORNELIUS ANNOUNCES; WHAT IS CARRIED. WHAT IS LEFT BEHIND? A HAUNTING NEW CHAMBER WORK INSPIRED BY MEMORY, PLACE & RENEWAL
What Is Carried, What Is Left Behind? Streaming Link
Award-winning Australian composer explores memory, grief and renewal through an immersive new chamber work featuring ‘Eclective Strings’.
Due for release in October 2026, the six-track album brings together string quartet, synthesizers and found sound in an immersive production mixed in Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio. Created with Melbourne-based string collective Eclective Strings, the project represents a major new chapter for Cornelius, moving beyond his celebrated career in screen composition into a more intimate and personal musical world.
The album began with a chance recording made late at night in Montalcino, Italy. While walking past the Concattedrale di San Salvatore, Cornelius captured the sound of a metal door moving in the wind. The strange, percussive sound became the central sonic motif of the title track and ultimately inspired the wider concept of the album.
Using Dolby Atmos, Cornelius has recreated the spatial experience of that original recording, placing the listener inside the soundscape with the string quartet and synthesizers arranged around them.
At the emotional heart of the album is ‘A Whispered Dawn (Spencer’s Lullaby)’, a string quartet composition originally written in 1999 during an extraordinarily difficult period in Cornelius’s life. His first-born son, Spencer, nearly died before and after childbirth. One of the first infants in Australia to undergo an operation in utero, Spencer was born at just 27 weeks and spent three months in neonatal intensive care, with doctors uncertain whether he would survive.
During this frightening period, Cornelius wrote A Whispered Dawn (Spencer’s Lullaby). The composition was never recorded and remained only as a manuscript for 26 years. Now, alongside the new material on What is Carried, What is Left Behind?, the piece finally receives its first recording.
For Cornelius, returning to the composition more than two decades later represents an act of reclamation — bringing together the fear and uncertainty of that moment with the perspective gained over the years since.
“Recording it now, alongside music written from that more honest place, is an act of reclamation. It’s the answer that piece has been waiting on for twenty-six years.”
Its inclusion gives the album a powerful sense of continuity, bringing together music from two very different points in Cornelius’s life and creating an emotional journey from uncertainty and memory towards hope and renewal.
“Recording it now, alongside music written from that more honest place, is an act of reclamation. It’s the answer that piece has been waiting on for twenty-six years.”
The album’s opening track, ‘In This Moment, What Matters Most?’, is similarly rooted in Cornelius’s personal experience. The phrase became an important reminder during a period of caring for his mother and dealing with anxiety, eventually becoming both a tattoo and the title of the album’s opening composition.
FROM MARY & MAX TO THE CONCERT HALL
Cornelius brings more than two decades of experience to What is Carried, What is Left Behind? His extensive screen-composition career includes more than 90 international productions, including Mary & Max, Backtrack, Till Human Voices Wake Us and five seasons of The Doctor Blake Mysteries.
He has also composed music for major IMAX documentaries including Hidden Universe and The Great Barrier Reef, as well as creating site-specific immersive works for the Australian Pavilions at the Shanghai and Nagoya World Expos.
His work has earned 18 major international awards and nominations, including AACTA and APRA/AMCOS recognition.
The new album has already received strong reactions from leading figures in the music industry, including Deutsche Grammophon’s Senior Manager A&R Anusch Alimirzaie, who described Cornelius’s music as “truly beautiful.”
Christian Kellersman, Executive Producer of Deutsche Grammophon’s Recomposed series, also praised the new work, saying: “I listened to your new album and it’s beautiful.”
London-based Major Tom Music Supervisor Marina Guy described the music as “truly stunning.”
A 55-MINUTE IMMERSIVE LIVE EXPERIENCE
Alongside the album, Cornelius is developing a 55-minute continuous live concert experience, transforming the record into one uninterrupted performance.
The production combines live string quartet, keyboards and sample manipulation with spoken word, bespoke lighting and video projection. Designed with festivals and curated concert series in mind, the performance can also incorporate local string quartets and language-specific spoken-word performers for international presentations.
TRACKLIST
- In This Moment, What Matters Most? – 5:06
- What is Carried, What is Left Behind? – 6:41
- Innocence – 3:46
- A Whispered Dawn (Spencer’s Lullaby) – 6:50
- Under an Impersonal Sky There is Hope – 4:57
- Bloom – 3:12
ABOUT DALE CORNELIUS
Dale Cornelius is an award-winning Australian composer based in Melbourne, with a career spanning more than two decades in screen scoring. His work has appeared across film, television, documentary and immersive projects, including Mary & Max, Backtrack, Till Human Voices Wake Us, The Doctor Blake Mysteries, Hidden Universe and The Great Barrier Reef.
With What is Carried, What is Left Behind?, Cornelius steps outside the demands of screen composition to create a work where memory, place and personal experience become the story itself.
ABOUT ECLECTIVE STRINGS
Eclective Strings is a Melbourne-based string collective featuring members of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Partridge String Quartet. Co-director Amy You has performed as a featured soloist on the Hans Zimmer Live world tour and collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma. The ensemble’s wider credits include work with Sigur Rós, Nai Palm of Hiatus Kaiyote, Lior and Wafia.
Follow Dale Cornelius
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dalecornelius_composer/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DaleCorneliusOfficial/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/dalecornelius
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/dalecornelius
Website: https://dalecornelius.com.au/
TG_angel Turns Digital Frustration Into Pop Inspiration With New Single “MacOS!”
The UK artist brings technology nostalgia and interpersonal tension into their world of hyperpop, electronic music and “Cyber Angel” imagery.
UNITED KINGDOM: Hyperpop and electronic pop artist TG_angel has released “MacOS!”, a new single inspired by the unexpected connection between struggling with technology and becoming frustrated with another person. Released October 4th, the track introduces listeners to an artist whose creative universe brings together cyber aesthetics, religious imagery and LGBTQ+ identity.
The inspiration for “MacOS!” began with an attempt to recreate an older computer experience. While trying to emulate an old version of Mac OS on their everyday Windows computer, TG_angel encountered confusing downloads and mounting frustration. Their eventual solution was to purchase an old MacBook on Vinted, but the experience also sparked an idea for a song.
“The idea for MacOS! came from when I was trying to emulate an old version of Mac OS on my main Windows computer that I use for everything,” TG_angel explains. “I found it really frustrating, and I didn’t know how any of the downloads worked, so I just gave up and bought an actual old MacBook on Vinted, and I thought it’d be really interesting to use that idea of getting frustrated with downloading something and combine that with being frustrated with a person.”
That connection gives “MacOS!” a relatable starting point: the moment when something, or someone, refuses to work the way you hoped. By drawing a parallel between digital obstacles and personal friction, TG_angel turns an everyday annoyance into a playful creative premise that fits naturally within their technology-inspired world.
Pronounced “TG Underscore Angel,” TG_angel blends experimental electronic production with bouncy, high-energy pop. Their broader artistic approach moves between the cute, the futuristic and the unsettling, drawing on synth-driven sounds and the nostalgia of 2010s-era technology.
At the center of the project is the “Cyber Angel,” a character and evolving fictional universe shaped by digital culture, heavenly imagery, identity and spirituality. Music, fashion and visual art each contribute to that universe, with glowing interfaces, synthetic textures and angelic imagery forming its visual language.
“MacOS!” offers a new entry point into that world, pairing a distinctly personal origin story with TG_angel’s imaginative approach to pop. An accompanying music video adds another dimension to the release.
Follow TG_angel:
YouTube | TikTok | Spotify | SoundCloud
ARGYRO Turns Los Angeles Into a State of Mind on “She’s So LA”
By John Parker
Los Angeles is a place, a brand and, for generations of songwriters, a particularly durable fantasy. On “She’s So LA,” the Denver-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist ARGYRO (Scott Argiro) treats it primarily as the last of those: a collection of attitudes and images condensed into one magnetic woman.
The title says plenty. She isn’t simply from Los Angeles; she’s “so LA,” as though the city were a personality type. ARGYRO approaches her with equal parts attraction and fascination, turning her into a character who belongs to the same world of carefully constructed identities that runs throughout his Glitterati project.
“She’s So LA” is streamlined pop-rock, built for immediacy without sounding impatient. Argiro performed all of the studio instruments and vocals except the lead and rhythm guitars, which were played by Damon Wood. That largely self-contained recording process gives the track cohesion: rhythm, melody and vocal phrasing seem to move toward the same destination.
Wood’s guitars provide an important counterweight. They bring rock texture to a song that could easily have leaned entirely into polished pop, giving the arrangement some grit beneath its California sheen.
The record was mixed and mastered in Denver by Jesse O’Brien, and there is an amusing geographical contradiction at its center. A song devoted to Los Angeles mythology was created hundreds of miles away in Colorado. Perhaps that’s appropriate. Cities often loom largest in popular culture when viewed from a distance.
ARGYRO is also an actor, and “She’s So LA” demonstrates how readily he thinks in scenes. The song doesn’t need to explain its central character exhaustively. Instead, it establishes an atmosphere and lets listeners fill in the missing details. She becomes simultaneously a woman and an idea of a woman, inseparable from the city being projected onto her.
That visual instinct carries naturally into the accompanying music video, directed by Denver filmmaker Elgin Cahill. The collaboration reinforces something increasingly apparent in ARGYRO’s work: he isn’t treating songs and visuals as unrelated promotional products. They’re different parts of the same storytelling impulse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-pURYEiHqo
Within Glitterati, “She’s So LA” also sharpens one of Argiro’s recurring interests: the distance between identity and presentation. The album has repeatedly circled celebrity, glamour, ego, romance and authenticity. Here those concerns become lighter and flirtier without disappearing.
The song enjoys its fantasy too much to dismantle it.
That’s an important distinction. ARGYRO isn’t standing outside Los Angeles culture wagging a finger at superficiality. He’s intrigued by the spectacle. He recognizes its absurdities while remaining susceptible to its pleasures.
And “She’s So LA” succeeds because it understands that attraction rarely begins with careful investigation. Sometimes a gesture, an attitude or an image is enough.
We see someone.
We invent everything else.
Then, if the pop song is good enough, we fall for the invention.
Ashes Awaken Turn the Devil’s Favorite Phrase Inside Out on “We Sold Our Souls to Heaven”
There is something gloriously perverse about naming a Christian metal song “We Sold Our Souls to Heaven.”
For fifty years, heavy metal has been accused of selling souls in precisely the opposite direction. Parents panicked, preachers burned records, politicians held hearings, and somewhere in every suburban basement a kid discovered that a distorted guitar sounded considerably more convincing than whatever the adults were yelling about upstairs.
Michael Stover understands the joke.
More importantly, he understands that a good rock song needs something sharper than a sermon. “We Sold Our Souls to Heaven,” the new single from his Christian metal project Ashes Awaken, (October 23rd) takes one of rock mythology’s oldest clichés—the Faustian bargain—and hijacks it for the other side.
“It was a deal that changed my life / The day I let my savior take control.”
There’s your thesis. No coy metaphors. No spiritual hide-and-seek. Stover walks through the front door carrying the cross in one hand and an amplifier in the other.
That kind of directness could easily become unbearable. Christian rock has spent decades proving that good intentions do not automatically produce good records. Too often faith-based music feels afraid of dirt, contradiction or desperation—the very things that made rock and roll necessary in the first place.
Ashes Awaken is more interesting when it embraces them.
The central hook, “We sold our souls to heaven,” works because it sounds almost wrong. You hear the phrase and instinctively expect sulfur, crossroads and bad decisions. Instead, Stover turns surrender into liberation. The transaction here isn’t about losing yourself. It’s about unloading the baggage that was killing you.
That tension gives the song its pulse.
https://open.spotify.com/artist/22GJudYpAkGjF4e8dPHbh5
“When you are lost what will you do?” Stover asks, before answering with Jesus, healing and guidance through darkness. There is nothing ambiguous about the theology, but ambiguity isn’t always the point. Sometimes a song exists because somebody climbed out of a hole and feels compelled to yell back down to the people still trapped there.
There’s another wrinkle worth discussing: the performance is AI-generated under Stover’s creative direction. The lyrics, composition and concept are his; artificial intelligence provides the musical performance.
Cue the inevitable arguments about authenticity.
Fine. Have them.
Rock music has always had an uneasy relationship with technology, right up until yesterday’s sacrilege becomes tomorrow’s standard equipment. Distortion was noise. Synthesizers were cheating. Drum machines were soulless. Pro Tools was supposedly going to murder humanity.
Now here comes another machine through the door.
Whether listeners embrace that aspect of “We Sold Our Souls to Heaven” will depend largely on what they believe a recording is supposed to represent. But the song’s central idea remains stubbornly human: despair, surrender, faith, second chances.
And that is the peculiar charm of Ashes Awaken.
This is a song created with decidedly twenty-first-century machinery delivering a message approximately two thousand years old.
Somewhere between those extremes, the guitars roar, the title smirks and Michael Stover makes his bargain.
The devil, apparently, doesn’t get this one.
LONGBOAT CELEBRATES BRITAIN AND LONDON ON NEW ELECTRONIC ALBUM PROUD OF MY POSTCODE
Seattle-born, UK-based band Longboat explores Britain, London and everyday life on forthcoming electronic album, set for release in September
Longboat announces the forthcoming release of Proud of My Postcode, a new all-electronic album inspired by Britain, London and the experience of seeing the country through the eyes of an American musician who has made the UK an increasingly important part of his life.
Set for release at the end of September, Proud of My Postcode was recorded at Strongroom Studios in Shoreditch, with Will Davies engineering. Across the album, Longboat moves between Britain’s past and present, creating an observational portrait shaped by history, everyday life and a deep affection for the country.
Formed in Seattle in 2011, Longboat is a prolific, genre-fluid band led by its founding musician, an original jazz tenor saxophonist and songwriter. Although Longboat is often a solo operation in the studio, the band can expand to include live rock and jazz musicians, strings, horns and backing singers, depending on what each piece of music demands.
Proud of My Postcode is the 37th album in Longboat’s extensive catalogue.
An American Perspective on Britain
The album grew out of a long-standing fascination with Britain and the contrasts between life in the UK and Longboat’s founder’s original home of Seattle.
Seattle is surrounded by mountains, forests and wildlife, while Britain offers something entirely different: thousands of years of history embedded into its cities, towns and landscapes. For Longboat, that history provides an endless supply of subjects to observe and transform into music.
But Proud of My Postcode isn’t intended to be a comprehensive portrait of Britain. Instead, it reflects one musician’s personal relationship with the country and the details that have caught his attention along the way.
“Proud of My Postcode doesn’t draw a complete picture of the UK, but I hope it helps to convey my affection for this country,” says Longboat’s founder.
That affection extends beyond Britain’s famous landmarks and historical moments. Longboat is particularly interested in the everyday — the ordinary moments, habits and observations that make life in Britain distinctive.
“I particularly like the way people celebrate the mundane here between various and sundry political and economic crises,” he says.
Rather than writing traditional love songs, Longboat approaches songwriting as a form of observation. Freed from the conventions of romantic songwriting, the music can focus on the world immediately around it: people, places, history, culture and the contradictions of modern life.
“It’s pretty liberating,” he explains.
From Seattle to Clerkenwell
Longboat’s connection with the UK has also increasingly moved beyond the recording studio.
The band’s founder currently spends time between Britain and Seattle while putting longer-term plans into place, with the intention of making the UK his permanent home in the future. In London, he has also begun performing piano-only versions of around 100 songs from Longboat’s extensive repertoire around Clerkenwell and hopes to take these performances further afield.
This emphasis on direct, human performance reflects Longboat’s independent approach to music. The band is committed to songwriting, recording and performance without the use of artificial intelligence, placing human creativity and musical agency at the heart of its work.
With Proud of My Postcode, Longboat turns that philosophy towards Britain itself, creating an electronic album that captures the perspective of an American-born musician increasingly drawn to the history, character and everyday life of his adopted home.
About Longboat
Formed in Seattle in 2011, Longboat is a prolific, genre-fluid band led by its founding musician, an original jazz tenor saxophonist and songwriter. While often operating as a solo studio outfit, Longboat can expand to incorporate live rock and jazz musicians, strings, horns and backing singers according to the demands of the music. With more than 500 songs written and 39 albums recorded, Longboat has built an extensive catalogue driven by observation, experimentation and a fascination with the world around it.
Follow Longboat
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/longboatmusic/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/longboatmusic
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/longboat
Bandcamp: https://longboat.bandcamp.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@longboatmusic4410
Light On The Hill release the official music video “Angels and Saints”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Amana Melome’ Returns Recalibrated the Remixes: Soul, Jazz and Global Rhythms Collide on New Remix Album
Recalibrated The Remixes Streaming Link
“RECALIBRATED The Remixes” arrives 25 September 2026, marking the final chapter of an extraordinary journey of self-discovery
Multidisciplinary artist Amana Melome’ is set to release RECALIBRATED THE REMIXES on 25 September 2026, bringing the journey that began with her acclaimed RECALIBRATION album to a powerful and celebratory conclusion.
RECALIBRATED: is about what happens when the searching is over and the lessons have been absorbed. It is a musical celebration of returning to an authentic self, embracing personal strength and stepping into a new chapter with confidence.
“I created this album of remixes because I wanted to rejoice and dance in celebration of the journey of ‘coming home to my authentic self’ through recalibration,” says Amana Melome’. “I wanted to rejoice in the affirmations of strength, embracing every aspect of who I am and my inner magic in these songs.”
The album takes listeners on a genre-spanning journey, bringing together producers from across the world to reinterpret Amana’s music through Dub Reggae, Funk/Disco, Jazz-House and Soulful/Deep House, alongside unexpected jazz influences.
A Celebration of Becoming
The collection focuses on the songs ‘Con C.ALMA’, ‘Recalibration’ and ‘SO DONE!’, with the latter opening the album as an unapologetic statement of personal liberation.
“Done with playing small, done with playing it safe,” Amana explains, describing the track as a farewell to limiting beliefs and outdated versions of herself.
Featuring Joel Holmes and Cee Elassaad, SO DONE! transforms that declaration into a celebration of strength, freedom and renewed energy.
The Song That Brings Everything Full Circle
The album’s most powerful moment comes with ‘Space Age Mama Jama RECALIBRATED’, a reimagining of the very first song Amana ever recorded, originally featured on her debut album Indigo Red! more than ten years ago.
For the new version, Amana returned to the same producer who worked on the original, Saverio ‘Sage’ Principini, creating a remarkable musical full circle. Acclaimed pianist Deron Johnson, known for touring with artists including Miles Davis and Stanley Clarke, also contributes to the new arrangement.
“Same song, totally different ME!” says Amana. “Giving myself permission to shine at full volume!”
The track captures the transformation at the centre of the entire Recalibration story: a woman finally embodying the fierce, playful, powerful character she imagined when she first wrote the song.
“Here I am RECALIBRATED!”
Motherhood, Identity and Finding Her Way Back
Amana’s return to music has been deeply connected to motherhood. After becoming a mother, she stepped back from her musical career to focus on raising her daughter. Now, as her daughter has grown older, Amana has found the freedom to reconnect with her music and creative identity.
Her creative journey has always been surrounded by music. Her grandfather was jazz musician Jimmy Woode, while her grandmother was a jazz singer and dancer and her parents were musicians. Amana herself works across music, writing, painting, ceramics and dance, creating an artistic world that refuses to fit neatly into one category.
Her multicultural upbringing – with connections to Italy, the United States, Spain, Sweden and the Caribbean – has further shaped her distinctive approach to music and storytelling.
Her work has already received praise from music publications, with All About Jazz highlighting its “cross-cultural spirit and jazz subtlety”, while Independent Artist Buzz praised her ability to combine soul, folk and cinematic storytelling.
RECALIBRATED: THE REMIXES – Tracklisting
- LET’S GLOW [Intro]
- SO DONE – Cee Elassaad & Joel Holmes Remix
- CON C.ALMA (DUB REMIX) – Somos Animales
- RECALIBRATION – Opolopo Remix
- CON C.ALMA – Eli Anai Remix
- RECALIBRATION – GodBlessComputers Remix
- RECALIBRATION – Saverio ‘Sage’ Principini Remix
- RECALIBRATED [Interlude]
- SPACE AGE MAMA JAMA RECALIBRATED – Deron Johnson & Saverio ‘Sage’ Principini Remake
- SPACE AGE MAMA JAMA RECALIBRATED – Saverio ‘Sage’ Principini Fire Remix
Live Dates
3 October 2026 – Teatro Niccolini, Florence, Italy
10 October 2026 – Malaga, Spain
About Amana Melome’
Amana Melome’ is a multicultural and multidisciplinary artist whose music blends soul, jazz, folk, world music and cinematic storytelling. Based in Marbella, Spain, she draws on a life shaped by multiple cultures, creative disciplines and a deep connection to personal expression.
Follow Amana Melome’
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amanamelome/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmanaMusic/
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/amanamelome
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/amanamelome
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Amana.Melome
Website: www.amanamelome.com
Vicious Kitty Chase a Fresh Start on Rock Single “Bangkok City,” Available Now
Vicious Kitty Chase a Fresh Start on Rock Single “Bangkok City,” Available Now
The Seattle band turns heartbreak and everyday frustration into a spirited invitation to escape.
SEATTLE, WA: Seattle rock band Vicious Kitty invite listeners to leave their troubles behind with “Bangkok City,” a single featured on their self-titled debut album. Bringing together the band’s blend of rock, grunge and pop, the song explores the hope that somewhere beyond familiar surroundings, a better life might be waiting.
At the heart of “Bangkok City” is a character whose life has come apart. Thrown out by his girlfriend, carrying his belongings in garbage bags and wearing boots with holes in the soles, he begins imagining a destination where he can shake off his blues and start again. Bangkok becomes the promise of possibility, a place far removed from the disappointments he knows.
The premise taps into a familiar feeling: wanting to be somewhere else when daily life stops resembling the life you hoped for. By pairing that frustration with the dream of escape, Vicious Kitty give the story both humor and an emotional center. Beneath the invitation to adventure lies a relatable desire to regain control and find something worth looking forward to.
Vicious Kitty’s approach brings that story into a musical world built around rock energy and pop accessibility. The band describes its sound as an edgy mix of rock, grunge and pop, shaped by years of performing throughout Seattle and along the West Coast. That experience also informs its emphasis on engaging, energetic live shows.
The trio features founder, guitarist and songwriter Matt Tantrum, drummer Chris “Stixx” Gartland, and bassist Tony Terlicker. Together, they bring decades of live and studio experience to a project centered on original music, personality and a shared love of rock.
“Bangkok City” is available now. Fans can listen on Apple Music, watch the Official Music Video, and visit viciouskitty.band for music, band information and upcoming performances.
Band Contact: viciouskittyband@gmail.com
Booking: matbat40@yahoo.com
For press inquiries or interview requests please contact:
For more on Vicious Kitty, follow them on social media:
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify
Fanny Alexandra Knows How To Give A Song A World Of Its Own
Good songwriting often depends on knowing when to stop explaining.
Fanny Alexandra’s “Black Pearl Summer” is a useful example. The subject matter is personal, but the song does not require a detailed account of every event behind it. Instead, Alexandra gives the listener a collection of recurring objects and locations and allows those details to carry some of the emotional weight.
The result is a lyric with its own internal geography.
A highway, tourists, fishermen, saltwater, tides, treasure and shipwrecks all belong to the same setting. That consistency matters. Once the listener understands the environment, Alexandra can move between personal recollection and larger observations without having to keep resetting the scene.
It is a particularly effective way of handling autobiographical material. The song looks back at Alexandra at 19 and at a period when survival had become more familiar than actually living, but she does not turn the track into a chronological account of those years. Instead, the past is filtered through a set of images that can be revisited from different directions.
The songwriting becomes more interesting as a result.
Consider the people introduced in the second verse. Alexandra describes one woman who presents herself as confident while using that confidence as protection, then another who can fill a room before disappearing from it. These are brief sketches rather than fully explained characters, but they broaden the song beyond autobiography.
The same thing happens with the recurring language of taking, returning and disappearing. The lyric keeps finding different ways to describe movement without losing its central environment.
Then comes the line, “Some things become beautiful / Some things become true / Very few become both.”
It is one of the song’s clearest lyrical moments, and it works because Alexandra has spent the preceding sections building towards it. The statement would have less impact without all the imagery around it.
The chorus follows a similar principle. The black pearl is not introduced merely as a striking title. It becomes a way of joining the song’s different strands: hardship, survival, appearance and the value attached to something after it has emerged from difficult circumstances.
That is what makes the lyric feel constructed rather than simply expressive. The images have jobs to perform.
Even the final return to the opening scene is structurally useful. The song comes back to the same view of the ocean, but the meaning has changed because the listener now knows what Alexandra has placed underneath it.
There is a lesson here for anyone interested in songwriting. A metaphor does not have to be complicated to carry an entire track. It needs to be flexible enough to develop.
Alexandra gives herself that flexibility by building “Black Pearl Summer” around one coherent environment and then letting different parts of her story move through it.
The technique is easy to overlook because the finished song feels natural. That is usually a good sign. The architecture is there, but it does not get in the way of the song.
Michael St. Over’s “Crave” Is Rock ’n’ Roll With Its Teeth in Your Neck
By Leslie Banks
There are love songs, there are lust songs, and then there are songs that sound like somebody kicked open the medicine cabinet, swallowed the whole damn pharmacy, and decided romance was the only antidote left.
Michael St. Over’s “Crave” belongs to that third category.
This isn’t candlelight and roses. It isn’t polite longing delivered over tasteful acoustic guitar while somebody stares meaningfully through a rain-streaked window. “Crave” is about desire as addiction—the kind that rattles your bones, hijacks your common sense, and leaves you wondering whether the thing keeping you alive might also be slowly killing you.
Which, when you think about it, is about as rock ’n’ roll as romance gets.
From the opening declaration—“I was born to love you baby / You were born to drive me crazy”—St. Over dispenses with subtlety. Good. Rock music has spent far too many years apologizing for wanting something. “Crave” doesn’t apologize. It grabs desire by the collar and drags it straight into the spotlight.
The song’s central metaphor is gloriously excessive: love as drug, lover as addiction, passion as monkey-on-your-back compulsion. St. Over sings about needing another person like a fix, and the language is intentionally dangerous. This isn’t some soft-focus Hallmark version of devotion. It’s bodily. Desperate. Slightly unhealthy. Maybe very unhealthy.
And that’s precisely why it works.
Great rock songs have rarely been instruction manuals for sensible living. Chuck Berry wasn’t writing tax advice. The Stones didn’t build a career around emotional moderation. Rock ’n’ roll is supposed to exaggerate feelings until they become enormous enough to shake the speakers.
“Crave” understands that.
Musically, St. Over plants the song firmly in muscular modern rock territory, built around an immediate hook and the kind of chorus designed to stick after one pass. The lead and rhythm guitars give the track its bite, while St. Over handles the vocals himself. There’s a satisfying self-contained quality to the recording—less committee-built product, more somebody locking themselves in a room until the thing in their head finally comes roaring out.
The chorus is where the song earns its title. “Your love’s a drug I jones to take,” St. Over sings, doubling down on imagery that would collapse under its own weight if he delivered it timidly. He doesn’t. The performance sells the obsession because there’s conviction behind it.
Then comes the bridge, where the craving gets even more physical: skin, breath, touch, proximity. By this point the song has stopped pretending love is primarily an intellectual exercise.
Thank God.
There’s something refreshingly unfashionable about “Crave.” It believes in big emotion. It believes guitars should sound like guitars. It believes a chorus ought to announce itself instead of politely requesting admission.
Most importantly, it believes desire should feel dangerous.
Maybe that’s the secret hiding underneath all the addiction metaphors. “Crave” isn’t really celebrating dependency. It’s describing that terrifying moment when another human being gets close enough to become necessary.
That’s romance without the greeting card.
That’s obsession plugged into an amplifier.
And that’s rock ’n’ roll.
Reduce repeated addiction imageryReplace the placeholder byline
Pre-save “Crave” at http://tunelink.to/michael-st-over_crave
Sufia Giza Carries the Dub-Poetry Tradition Forward on New Roots Reggae Album “Echoes of Freedom”
Produced by Jah-Eye and featuring veteran reggae musicians Carlton “Santa” Davis and Lesterfari Simbarashe, the nine-track set begins its rollout on Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Indigenous author, historical researcher and dub-poetess Sufia Giza first entered the media spotlight with her 2018 book, Moundbuilders of Ancient America: A Legacy Reclaimed, which explored her ancestral roots and the legacy of ancient mound-building cultures. Now, Giza will mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day with the October 12 premiere of her “Quantum Nonsense” video trailer, launching the multi-stage rollout for her forthcoming nine-track roots reggae album, Echoes of Freedom, extending her historical and cultural work through poetry and music while creating space for intergenerational conversations about identity, remembrance, resistance and healing.
The video trailer draws from the album track ‘Quantum Nonsense,’ which examines the complex history of Black people in Indian Country and invites a deeper conversation about the intersections of Indigenous and African American history.
Following the trailer premiere, Giza will pre-release one album track, the ethereal “I Went to Church Today,” on November 2, the Day of the Dead. Written while she was grieving her mother’s death, the song opens the campaign on a day associated with remembrance and honoring those who have passed. The complete digital album is scheduled for release December 31, 2026, on Unity Works Music, coinciding with Kuumba, the Kwanzaa principle of creativity. CDs will follow in 2027, with a vinyl edition also under consideration.
“Echoes of Freedom is my way of bringing the voices of the past into the conversations we are having right now. Releasing the ‘Quantum Nonsense’ trailer on Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a way of honoring Indigenous history while setting the tone for an album rooted in reverence and restoration,” said Giza.
Of Muskogee Creek and Gullah-Geechee heritage, Giza lives between Charleston, South Carolina, and Tobago, Trinidad’s sister island. Her work as a spoken word artist follows the dub-poetry tradition of artists who place politically and culturally conscious verse over music, including Linton Kwesi Johnson, Nikki Giovanni, the Watts Prophets, the Last Poets and Mutabaruka. With Echoes of Freedom, she pairs positive, reflective lyrics with a mellow roots reggae foundation, using song as a bridge between lived memory and contemporary questions.
The album is produced by Jah-Eye and features veteran musicians including drummer Carlton “Santa” Davis of Soul Syndicate, whose credits include work with Peter Tosh and Ziggy Marley, and guitarist Lesterfari Simbarashe of King’s Music. Their instrumentation supports Giza’s measured vocal delivery across a collection recorded over a period of years.
Echoes of Freedom includes work that has already reached audiences through film and publishing. “Cape Fear Massacre” appeared on the soundtrack to Christopher Everett’s award-winning 2015 documentary Wilmington on Fire, while “Softly Walking” was published in the 2016 Routledge anthology Emergent Possibilities for Global Sustainability: Intersections of Race, Class and Gender.
Other selections explore grief, consciousness, perseverance and self-worth. Alongside “I Went to Church Today,” the album includes “Indigo Moods” and the inspirational “Keep It Movin’.” “Reflection of Love” examines low self-esteem, while “Quantum Nonsense,” the visual entry point for the campaign, considers the history of anti-Blackness in Indian Country.
“Dub poetry allows me to place history inside rhythm, where it can be felt as well as heard. I want this music to open conversations between generations and encourage people to look more deeply at the stories that have shaped us,” Giza added.
The “Quantum Nonsense” trailer combines desert drone footage with photography edited by Giza. It premieres October 12, 2026, in observance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day and can be viewed at https://youtu.be/ov9IyUT7L6g .
Additional music and album details will be announced at https://sufiagiza.com .
About Sufia Giza
Sufia Giza is an Indigenous Muskogee Creek and Gullah-Geechee spoken word artist, dub-poetess, author and documentary filmmaker whose work explores history, culture, identity and the African diaspora. She is the author of the 2018 book Moundbuilders of Ancient America: A Legacy Reclaimed, which documents her decades-long exploration of her family’s Indigenous ancestry and the ancient mound-building cultures of the Americas.
A native of Riverside, California, with roots in South Carolina and the Caribbean, she holds three degrees, including a master’s degree in bilingual and cross-cultural educational counseling. Her creative catalog also includes two poetry chapbooks and five documentaries, among them REGGAE MILITIS The Bizness of Reggae Music and ethnobotanical films examining medicinal plant traditions across the African diaspora. Echoes of Freedom is her second release on Unity Works Music.
Visit https://sufiagiza.com and reconnect to your roots!
Mila Sidhu Blends Alt-Pop and R&B on Empowering New Single ‘One Night’
Mila Sidhu steps into a more assured side of her artistry with One Night, a sultry alt-pop and R&B single built around sensuality, rhythm and self-possession. The London-born singer-songwriter delivers a track that feels designed for the late-night hours, pairing sleek production with an understated intensity that gives its confidence plenty of room to breathe.
At the heart of One Night is Sidhu’s commanding vocal presence. Her delivery moves effortlessly between intimate and seductive, while the production maintains a crisp, atmospheric pulse that places the track somewhere between alternative R&B and darker pop. Rather than portraying desire through uncertainty, Sidhu approaches it from a position of control, capturing the thrill of being wanted while retaining the power to decide what happens next.
The track also introduces an Indian influence into Sidhu’s musical palette. Developed with producer Siloe, the song began with Sidhu’s desire to incorporate elements of her heritage, later drawing on her exploration of traditional Indian scales while working with a singer in India. These influences add another layer to an already distinctive production without overpowering the song’s contemporary pop and R&B foundations.
That balance reflects Sidhu’s broader musical identity, which draws from R&B, jazz, hip-hop and darker pop. Yet One Night feels particularly direct: where some of her songwriting explores heartbreak, vulnerability and emotional uncertainty, this single is centred on confidence and self-definition. It is sensual without losing its edge, and polished without sacrificing personality.
With its sleek production, assured vocals and subtle cultural detail, One Night marks a compelling shift in emphasis for Mila Sidhu. It is a track built around presence, the kind of song that enters quietly, establishes its atmosphere, and makes sure it holds the room.
Slay Raché Sets the Stage for Debut Album With “You Make Me Wanna Dance”
Independent pop and R&B artist Slay Raché channels the golden age of dance-pop into “You Make Me Wanna Dance,” an upbeat new single that pairs 80s-inspired energy with polished contemporary production. Built on bouncy rhythms, glossy textures and an instantly accessible hook, the track showcases Raché’s knack for writing pop that makes its impact quickly, while her commanding vocals give the production added presence.
Inspired in part by Michael Jackson and sparked by a Valentine’s Day visit to the Michael Jackson musical in New York, the track carries a clear sense of nostalgia without becoming a retro exercise. Its climactic key change adds a classic pop flourish, while the streamlined production keeps the record firmly rooted in the present.
“You Make Me Wanna Dance” arrives ahead of Raché’s self-titled debut album, Slay, due this fall. Following chart appearances for “XOXO” and “When The Lights Go Out,” as well as more than one million cumulative streams, the release further establishes Raché as an independent artist building a cohesive pop and R&B catalogue around strong songwriting, vocal precision and a distinct creative identity.
“PORTALZ” by Margaret Maria and Bill Gilliam
On PORTALZ, Margaret Maria and Bill Gilliam aren’t interested in rushing toward obvious hooks or making their instrumental music explain itself. They build an atmosphere piece by piece instead, allowing cello, piano, electronics, and orchestral detail to occupy their own corners of the room. The result is an album that bubbles along closer to a destination than a conventional song cycle. Maria’s cello is naturally the most immediate presence. There is something unusually physical about her playing throughout the album. You can hear the bowing, the phrasing, the pauses between ideas. It gives the album a human identity, particularly when Gilliam’s electronic and compositional instincts push things toward more abstract territory.
“Portalz Threshold” is an appropriately understated beginning. It doesn’t arrive with the intention of announcing itself as a grand statement. Instead, it establishes the album’s vocabulary and lets the listener settle into it. “Summoning The Enchantress” follows with more dramatic movement, and this is where Maria’s playing really begins to dominate the experience. One of the underlying strengths of PORTALZ is that the musicians don’t appear overly concerned with keeping everything tidy.
“Landscape Of Complexing Beauty” is a good example. Piano and strings intersect in ways that can feel deliberately unpredictable, yet the arrangement never collapses into randomness. There is structure underneath the movement, even when it isn’t immediately obvious. Then “Love Trembling” brings the emotional side of the record closer to the surface. The title isn’t subtle, but the performance is. Rather than leaning into melodrama, the piece lets its tension develop gradually. Maria’s cello again provides the emotional foundation, giving the composition a sense of vulnerability that the more electronic passages don’t necessarily possess.
The live approach to the album is important here. PORTALZ doesn’t have the sterile perfection that can sometimes accompany heavily constructed instrumental records. There is a sense of musicians actually playing with one another, and that small amount of unpredictability gives the music some needed friction. “Strings Of Ascent” continues the record’s fascination with upward movement and layered texture, while “Dissolving Space Time” opens up a more expansive section of the album. It feels less grounded, almost as if the familiar surroundings have gradually disappeared.
The second half gets particularly interesting when Gilliam and Maria turn toward technology. “Race Of AI Bots” is playful in concept but carries an underlying uneasiness. The track suggests a world in which machines have become increasingly difficult to separate from everyday life. “Mirrored Complex” takes that idea into darker, more intricate territory, with tightly wound musical passages. When the quietness of “Still Stillness” arrives on the next track, the album seems to be deliberately slowing its pulse. That makes the final “Beyond The Unknown” to sound less like a conclusion than a departure point and why it’s a great closer.
In conclusion, PORTALZ won’t necessarily reveal everything on a first listen, and that’s part of its fantastic appeal. Maria and Gilliam have made something that sits comfortably between composition and performance, emotion and experimentation. It is occasionally challenging, occasionally beautiful, and at its best, genuinely absorbing. For an instrumental album, that’s no small accomplishment.
Gwen Waggoner
Norwegian Composer Solveig Sørbø Unveils Heroin Chic, A Powerful New Opera Exploring Addiction, Identity and Death
Following acclaimed performances in Romania and Norway, the ambitious 90-minute opera explores addiction, identity, death and the desire for transcendence through a maximalist and emotionally charged sound world.
Norwegian composer Solveig Sørbø’s ambitious opera Heroin Chic will be released worldwide on 16 October 2026 via Solsnu, distributed by Diger, bringing the acclaimed work to audiences in digital, 2CD and 2xVinyl formats.
Based on the novel by Norwegian writer Maria Kjos Fonn, Heroin Chic explores addiction, self-destruction, identity, sexuality, death and the tension between innocence and physicality. Drawing on both contemporary classical music and popular culture, Sørbø creates an intense and highly theatrical sound world that is maximalist, colourful, hypnotic and emotionally uncompromising.
The opera received its concert premiere in Romania in February 2025, where it was met with a standing ovation from an audience of 500. Critics praised its eclectic soundscape, philosophical depth, emotional impact and striking richness of sound. Romanian cultural magazine Revista Migalo wrote that the production “struck the collective psyche”, while Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen described it as a “danse macabre”.
Heroin Chic subsequently received its Norwegian concert premiere at Oslo’s Parkteatret in February 2026 as part of the Klassisk på Park concert series. The sold-out performance featured some of Norway’s leading classical performers, live visuals by Franciska Eliassen and a handful of staged moments, followed by an afterparty with DJ Roland Lifjell.
The performance was enthusiastically received, and Norwegian music publication Ballade subsequently compared Sørbø’s determination in bringing the ambitious project to life to that of Norwegian cross-country skiing champion Johannes Høsflot Klæbo.
Just two days after the Norwegian premiere, the complete opera was recorded live to tape at Jar Church outside Oslo. Capturing 90 minutes of opera in a single day was a considerable undertaking for the performers and recording team, resulting in a recording designed to preserve the immediacy and intensity of the live work.
At the centre of Heroin Chic is Elise, a young woman consumed by an obsessive desire for death and transcendence. Raised by an overprotective mother who sees her as an almost saintly figure, Elise struggles with the growing conflict between innocence, sexuality and her developing sense of identity.
As she searches for a way to express the darkness within her, Elise adopts a heroin-chic aesthetic and runs away from home. She falls in love with rocker Joakim, who introduces her further into a world of drugs, while the emergence of D — a manifestation of her destructive subconscious — pushes her towards increasingly extreme behaviour.
Across two acts, Elise’s journey moves through anorexia, addiction, sexual exploitation, fractured identity and rehabilitation, with the boundaries between reality, fantasy, life and death becoming increasingly blurred. Her search for transcendence ultimately leads her back towards her mother, childhood and the idea of eternal sleep.
The opera’s final moments deliberately leave the audience questioning what they have witnessed: death, resurrection or a drug-induced fantasy.
Musically, Heroin Chic is equally unconventional. The score features a powerful and hypnotic percussion section, one of the largest soprano roles for a child singer in opera literature, and a distinctive reinvention of the cimbalom within a contemporary classical setting. Captivating melodies sit alongside an eclectic orchestral landscape, creating a work that is both challenging and highly engaging for performers and listeners alike.
The recording features soloists Susanna Wolff, Sofia Neacsu, Siv Misund, Ivar Magnus Sandve and Johannes Nikolai Aas, performing alongside Ensemble Oslo under conductor Hans Petter Mæhle. The recording was engineered and produced by Trond Kjelsås of LydFest.
With roots in the avant-garde as well as popular culture, Heroin Chic is a distinctive contribution to contemporary Norwegian music theatre. Its combination of opera, theatrical storytelling, unconventional instrumentation and psychologically intense subject matter creates a work that reaches beyond traditional operatic boundaries.
Following its successful performances in Romania and Norway, the complete 90-minute recording now brings Sørbø’s ambitious work to a wider international audience.
Follow Solveig Sørbø
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solveigcomposer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/solveigcomposer
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/solveig
Website: https://solveigsorbo.com/heroin-chic/
jon scott’s “YOU ARE SO REAL” Makes A Case For Earnest Love Songs
Not every love song needs a twist. jon scott’s “YOU ARE SO REAL” is refreshingly open about what it wants to be. It is affectionate, romantic and completely comfortable with saying so. In a music landscape where emotions are often dressed up in layers of irony, that openness gives the track its own appeal.
The song revolves around appreciation for someone who has made a real difference in scott’s life. Its inspiration came during his recovery from spinal surgery, when the support he received from others became especially important. That personal background is there, but the song does not turn into a detailed account of what happened. Its attention stays on the person being thanked.
That choice also suits the musical style. The track draws from soul and older romantic songwriting, giving scott a setting where warmth and affection feel right at home. The melody and vocal leave plenty of space for the words to come through.
There is something quite enjoyable about a song that does not try to hide behind its own intentions. “YOU ARE SO REAL” is happy to be a love song. It does not need a complicated angle or a dramatic reveal. The pleasure comes from hearing somebody put genuine affection into a piece of music and let that be enough.
For scott, the track grew from a deeply personal period. For listeners, it arrives as an uncomplicated reminder of one of the oldest reasons people write songs in the first place: to tell someone they matter.
STEPHEN MUGFORD SHARES JOYOUS SING-ALONG ANTHEM ‘FUZZY SOCKS (NA NA NA)’
A piano-bright celebration of life’s small wonders, taken from forthcoming album ‘Letters Never Sent’, due early 2027
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – SEPTEMBER 2026
Rising singer-songwriter Stephen Mugford returns with ‘Fuzzy Socks (Na Na Na)’, a warm, big-hearted anthem that is out now across all platforms. It is the latest glimpse of his second album, Letters Never Sent, arriving in early 2027.
With shades of Billy Joel’s storytelling and a chorus built for crowds, ‘Fuzzy Socks’ is a real sing-along. It is a song about getting out of your own head and back into your life. Its message is simple and quietly profound: worrying about the meaning of life can get in the way of actually living it.
The track moves across a whole lifetime in three verses. It opens in midlife, with a traveller asking a holy man about “the point, the truth, the goal”. He discovers the sage is “just a man beneath a robe”, no surer than anyone else, who suggests easing up and noticing the little things. The second verse goes back to childhood. A young girl lies awake worrying whether the world is all right, until “the wall of bears in bed rose to her defense”. The final verse moves forward to the end of life. There, among heavy truths, what rises above the noise is the wonder of flowers breaking through snow, and the comfort of “funny lovers, corny covers, fuzzy socks.” Each verse resolves in the same wordless, unifying “na na na”. That refrain works as an invitation for everyone to join in, whoever and wherever they are.
IN STEPHEN’S WORDS
“The irony of anxiety is that worrying about everything that might ruin your life gets in the way of living it. Obsessing about the meaning of life, or the risks of life, or the end of life eclipses the point of life – to live it, to feel it, to taste it out loud. I think living is found less in the monumental stuff and more in the little joys and wonders we so often rush past.”
THE MUSIC
Stephen writes the lyrics and core arrangements of every song. He then shapes them with award-winning producer John Escobar and Emmy- and Grammy-winning guitarist and arranger Claudio Ragazzi, bringing in top session players to finish each recording. His sound draws on the 70s and 80s music he grew up with. It combines the soulfulness of classic acoustic singer-songwriters, a little funk and the harmonic richness of jazz. A former poetry student who keeps a diary of reflections and observations, Stephen fills his songs with vivid imagery. Family, friendship, everyday struggles and everyday joys are his canvas.
His 2024 debut album Palooza Beach was well received by critics and listeners. It won praise for its observational lyrics and honest, unpretentious songwriting. Stephen sums up his music as “Reflecting in Tune”: stubbornly optimistic, open about life’s messier moments, and always delivered with a wink and a nod. ‘Fuzzy Socks (Na Na Na)’ may be the purest expression of that yet. It is a song that reminds us to feel life deeply and never miss a chance to giggle.
KEY INFORMATION
Artist: Stephen Mugford
Single: ‘Fuzzy Socks (Na Na Na)’
Impact date: 25 September 2026
Album: Letters Never Sent (early 2027)
Production: John Escobar, with arrangements by Claudio Ragazzi
For fans of: Billy Joel, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Jack Johnson
LINKS
Listen: https://stephenmugford.ffm.to/fuzzy-socks-na-na-na
Instagram: instagram.com/stephenmugfordmusic
Facebook: facebook.com/stephenmugfordmusic
Linktree: linktr.ee/stephenmugfordmusic
PRESS, RADIO & TV ENQUIRIES
Mark Adams – Blinding Talent
mark@blindingtalent.com | blindingtalent.com
Beck Martin & DJ Asym distribute the official music video “It’s About Friday Night”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
